Austrians turn the page to make it to the Round of 16
12.08.2021 - Vienna, Austria
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After losing their second pool play match on Wednesday evening, Austrians Lena Plesiutschnig and Katharina Schützenhöfer got their strength back and amazed the local crowd with a straight-set (21-16, 21-19) victory against Greeks Vasiliki Arvaniti and Penny Karagouni that sent the home team to the Round of 16 of the A1 CEV EuroBeachVolley Vienna 2021 presented by Swatch.
“It feels amazing,” Schützenhöfer said. “We are really proud about how we played today, we were extremely focused on our game plan and I think we did really great. We are super happy that we are going into the Round of 16.”
The key, the 27-year-old defender, said, was quickly turning the page on their setback against the Ukrainian twins Inna and Iryna Makhno and focusing on the next challenge ahead at the Red Bull Beach Arena.
“Today we tried to focus on a new game,” she added. “We wanted to forget the bad things and focus on the good things and I think we did a really good job with that.”
In the Round of 16, the Austrians will play against Germans Chantal Laboureur and Cinja Tillmann. Guaranteed a ninth-place in Vienna, the two are just one win away from the quarterfinals, which would represent their best-ever finish in the event.
“If we play our best beach volleyball we can go to the top,” Plesiutschnig commented. “So, we’ll just focus on our game, go point by point and then see how it goes.”
Playing in their third EuroBeachVolley together, Spanish Paula Soria and Maria Carro made it to the top-ten for the first time after they defeated Polish Agata Ceynowa and Jagoda Gruszczynska in straight sets (21-19, 21-13) in the Round of 24. They will now face Russians Svetlana Kholomina and Ksenia Dabizha in the Round of 16.
Sandra Ittlinger and Kim Behrens were the fourth German team to make it to the Round of 16 after they knocked Norwegians Ingrid Lunde and Emilie Olimstad out of the tournament with a 2-0 (22-20, 21-15) victory. Their next opponents will be Dutch veterans Madelein Meppelink and Sanne Keizer.
Switzerland’s Esmee Böbner and Zoé Vergé-Dépré are also in the top-ten after their Round of 24 opponents Ekaterina Birlova and Anastasiia Frolova of Russia had to forfeit their match. The Swiss will play against German Olympians Julia Sude and Karla Borger in Friday’s Round of 16.
