03/09/2016 18:45
All-German final in Jurmala between top-seeded Laboureur/Sude and qualifiers Mersmann/Schneider
2016 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship - Jurmala Masters
Jurmala, Latvia, September 3, 2016. A number of German fans were in attendance on Saturday late afternoon as three teams from this country starred in the women’s semi-finals of the Jurmala Masters – and they eventually shaped up an all-German ‘grand finale’ on Sunday. Teresa Mersmann/Isabel Schneider claimed the derby with Victoria Bieneck/Julia Grossner to add another episode to their success story in Jurmala as they started the tournament by entering the qualification round contested on Thursday. Chantal Laboureur/Julia Sude, on the other hand, lived up to their status of top seeded team in the competition to shut out Russia’s Olga Motrich and Daria Rudykh. As a result, with two teams from the same country set to face off in the gold medal match, Germany have already claimed the quota spot to next year’s FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship which is at stake this weekend in Jurmala.
Victoria Bieneck/Julia Grossner and Teresa Mersmann/Isabel Schneider opened the programme of the semis in a German derby starring two teams that because of the depth of this country’s Beach Volleyball programme cannot compete internationally as much and as often as they would love to. And yet, Bieneck/Grossner can boast a fourth place from the 2014 edition of the CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship Final on their resume – where they lost the bronze medal match to the recently crowned Olympic champions Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst.
The gold medal winners of this year’s CEV Satellite in Ankara, Mersmann/Schneider set the tempo of the match in the opening set which they took by 21-18. Bieneck and Grossner fought as much as they could in the second but they missed out on a set point before their countrywomen completed a spectacular comeback to take the set 22-20 and with it a spot in the ‘grand finale’ of the tournament.
This is quite an achievement for Mersmann and Schneider who started their Latvian campaign as early as Thursday in the qualification round. “We have won all of our matches in two sets so far and this is really cool,” Mersmann admitted, “and in my opinion we have been improving from match to match. We travelled to Jurmala after suffering a major setback last week in Long Beach where we failed to make it to the Main Draw of the Grand Slam after losing to a Brazilian team [Carol and Ana Patricia] in the qualification, something which should not have happened. On the other hand, our performance was a bit rusty in the States after not playing for more than two weeks because of the break due to the Rio Olympics. We came here highly motivated and I think so far we have showed that we can play good Beach Volleyball and can be highly competitive at this level.”
As for the second semi-final, the first set was a much closer race than many expected it to be – with Motrich/Rudykh putting up a fight before Laboureur and Sude persevered to emerge victorious at 21-17. Cheered on by a group of fans of the German ice hockey national team that this weekend is playing in Riga for a spot to compete at the 2018 Winter Olympics, Laboureur and Sude showed their class and cruised to a speedy 21-11 win in the second set to secure their spot in the final.
As a result, there will be an all-German final in Jurmala starring the top-seeded team of the tournament and qualifiers Mersmann/Schneider. With Bieneck/Grossner playing Motrich and Rudykh for bronze, Germany may sweep the podium of the tournament that caps a highly successful 2016 Beach Volleyball season.
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