21/07/2018 17:57
Switzerland and Netherlands emerge victorious from dramatic women’s semis
2018 CEV DELA Beach Volleyball European Championship
The Hague, The Netherlands, July 21, 2018. Sanne Keizer/Madelein Meppelink of the Netherlands and Switzerland’s Tanja Hüberli/Nina Betschart will be playing for the women’s #EuroBeachVolley title on Saturday evening at 19.45 in The Hague after they were able to pull out come-from-behind victories in their respective semis with teams from Czech Republic and Spain, respectively. Keizer/Meppelink will be fighting for the second continental crown in their career – as they previously won gold in 2012 and 2014 respectively with the same partner – Marleen van Iersel. Hüberli will also contest her second European Championship gold medal match – back in 2014, she lost in Cagliari to Meppelink/Van Iersel while playing with her former partner Tanja Goricanec.
Earlier in the afternoon, Hüberli/Betschart came from behind a couple of times to claim a 14-21, 23-21, 15-13 victory over Liliana/Elsa. After a slow, low-profile opening set, where the Swiss made many mistakes and lacked consistency in their game, the Spaniards failed to capitalise on two match points towards the end of the second where they had stormed to a 20-18 lead. Hüberli and Betschart wiped that deficit away and at the end of the most exciting rally of the whole match, they emerged victorious 23-21 to re-open the fate of the match. The Swiss came from behind in the tiebreaker as well, where they trailed 9-12 but a timeout produced the results they were hoping for – as they eventually eased to a 15-13 win to secure Hüberli’s second appearance in a #EuroBeachVolley final after a previous one in 2014 with former partner Tanja Goricanec.
“I cannot explain the inconsistency of this match, we were trying to remain calm throughout the game and we were talking a lot to try and make things better. We were struggling in side-out, we knew that Liliana was not hitting any balls; actually, she was shooting all the time, but we were struggling to get them. We were trying just to take it point by point and at the end I don’t really know what made the difference,” Tanja Hüberli said.
Nina Betschart and Tanja Hüberli celebrate their victory in the semi-final with Spain
On saving two match points for Spain: “At that moment I was actually really angry with myself, because I knew we had a big lead. I told myself this is a semi-final and I did not want to give that away just like that. I don’t know if I will ever be here again, so I really want to fight until the last point.”
History repeated itself in the second semi-final where home stars Keizer/Meppelink claimed their second victory in as many matches they have contested with Slukova/Hermannova in the tournament. A couple of days ago, they beat the Czechs to secure the top spot in their pool in Rotterdam – and on Saturday afternoon, they showed what fighting spirit is all about as they came back from a set down and especially from a 6-10 deficit in the tiebreaker to claim a spot in the title-deciding match. The Czechs kept a slim lead in the first set to produce a 22-20 win, and they closed in at 16-17 after trailing by a number of points in the second one. However, a Dutch timeout resulted in the home side storming to a 21-17 win, with Slukova/Hermannova scoring only one more point after the break.
The 2016 #EuroBeachVolley silver medallists wasted a 10-6 lead in the third set, where Keizer especially rose to the occasion to provide the Dutch audience with something to cheer about – and to secure for herself and partner Meppelink the opportunity to play for continental gold for the second time in their careers.
An emotional Sanne Keizer reacted to the victory: “I have to ‘reload’ and I will be fine in a few hours, no worries, but yes, I played with my kids in the stands, so I am very emotional because I really wanted to win for them. I am so happy for myself too that we had the patience until the end of the game, because we really had to fight them throughout the match as they were actually playing a better game. Then we changed the plans and it all worked out, but patience got us there.”
Orange party as Sanne Keizer and Madelein Meppelink make it to the gold medal match of a home #EuroBeachVolley
Madelein Meppelink: “We changed our tactic in the end. Our plan was to serve them on the outside and I was like – ok, this is not working, so let us try something else – let’s go middle and just fight for it. I think we switched at the right moment and they didn’t have an answer in time.”
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