31/07/2015 18:56
Slovak and Polish girls two steps away from historic medal after making European Championship semis at world’s Beach Volleyball ‘Mecca’
2015 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship - Final
Klagenfurt, Austria, July 31, 2015. The women’s semis of the 2015 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship Final in Klagenfurt coming up on Saturday morning will feature four teams from as many countries: Germany, Russia, Slovakia and Poland. The quarterfinals played on Friday afternoon provided some surprising results and also a couple of historic achievements since Slovakia’s Natalia Dubovcova/Dominika Nestarcova and Poland’s Kinga Kolosinska/Monika Brzostek are the very first players from their countries to make the European Championship semis since the competition was established back in 1994. Dubovcova/Nestarcova will now play Germany’s Laura Ludwig/Kira Walkenhorst whilst Kolosinska/Brzostek are set to take on Russia’s Evgenia Ukolova/Ekaterina Birlova in the other semi-final.
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2014 was the breakthrough year for Natalia Dubovcova and Dominika Nestarcova of Slovakia but this season they could not quite repeat the same achievements. However, something changed after they travelled to Klagenfurt earlier this week as they have swept a series of matches ousting the reigning European champions – Madelein Meppelink and Marleen van Iersel of The Netherlands – and in the quarterfinals also 2014 silver medallists Tanja Goricanec and Tanja Hüberli of Switzerland (21-19, 21-13). “I do not think that we have been performing worse than we did last year,” Dubovcova acknowledges, “the fact is that because of the Olympic qualification the level got much higher and all matches are incredibly tight and difficult.” “If you play 100% you can beat anyone out there, but if your level goes down a bit, you can lose to every single opponent you get to play because the level got so incredibly high,” Nestarcova adds. “This is the first time that we are performing so well here in Klagenfurt. We have been here a number of times but for one reason or the other, we never quite delivered,” Dubovcova points out. “This is just an amazing tournament, the crowd is great and so we are happy that we are finally playing our best here. On top of this, this is a European Championship and we are two steps away from winning a medal that would be historic for Slovakia,” she adds. “We have beaten the gold and silver medal winners from last year and next are those who won bronze in 2014 in Cagliari, Ludwig and Walkenhorst. So they are the next target on our way to the big final,” adds the tall and talkative 25-year old Natalia.
There were highs and lows for Germany in the matches that opened the programme of the quarterfinals on Friday afternoon at Austria’s largest sandbox. Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst did not start in the best way their matchup with Greece’s Vasiliki Arvaniti and Maria Tsiartsiani, however as the match progressed, they slowly but surely imposed their rule to stamp a 21-19, 21-12 win. This way Ludwig made another step on the way to an eighth medal at the CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship – Final, a feat that would improve her all-time record of seven which includes gold in 2008 and 2010 with former partner Sara Goller.
The gold medal winners of the FIVB Grand Slam held last week in Yokohama, Japan got back on track after a nervous start, as Walkenhorst admitted after the match. “You probably realised that I did not start the match in the best way, maybe also because I wasn’t used to play before such crowd.” Ludwig was evidently happy with the result: “I have been playing here for 10 years already but it’s always an experience, one of a kind. You need to adjust to this big stadium and also to this noisy crowd. Of course we are happy with the result and also with the opportunity to play another two matches on Saturday on this terrific stage. I do not want to make any prediction, but if we play our best, we stand a fair chance to finish the competition on top of the charts,” the two-time European champion said.
The first quarterfinal delivered the longest set so far in the tournament but Germany’s Chantal Laboureur and Julia Sude were not the ones to celebrate in the end. Russia’s Evgenia Ukolova and Ekaterina Birlova showed nerves of steel to pocket the first stanza at 33-31 and after that they controlled the game in the second set (21-16) to make the semis. Russia hasn’t won a European medal in the women’s competition since 2006, when Natalya Uryadova and Alexandra Shiryaeva, now Moiseeva, claimed gold in Scheveningen.
Ukolova and Birlova still had memories from a dramatic quarterfinal match they had played on centre court two years ago and where they could not capitalise on match balls before losing to eventual gold medal winners, home heroines Stefanie and Doris Schwaiger. “As we talked before the start of the match, I told the girls that we definitely had some memories from that court, actually bad ones, and we needed to erase them. It was all about controlling the emotions and I think that today Katya and Evgenia did a very good job,” said their Italian-born mentor Marco Solustri.
Poland’s sensation Kinga Kolosinska and Monika Brzostek continued to leave their mark on the tournament. After edging home heroines Cornelia Rimser and Nadine Strauss, they wrote a piece of history with their 21-16, 21-17 win over Switzerland’s Isabelle Forrer and Anouk Vergé-Dépré to turn into their country’s first team to make the semis of the women’s European Championship since the tournament was established back in 1994. “It’s just crazy,” Kinga Kolosinska said looking visibly overwhelmed with joy. “We have been playing very well in our pool [where they beat also Germany’s Holtwick/Semmler, the top European team at this year’s World Championships in The Netherlands] and have continued to do so also in the elimination round. I am so excited about making the semis, do not know what to say. We just would like to continue to perform well and now we want gold!”
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