Umag, Croatia, June 23, 2013 – Germany’s Anika Krebs and Jelena Wlk take on Katarzyna Kociolek and Jagoda Gruszscynska in the women’s final of the U21 World Championships in Umag. The gold medal match is scheduled for eight o’clock on Sunday evening in the Stella Maris Stadium.
Krebs and Wlk had an easy straight win (21-16 21-6) over Spain’s Paula Soria and Raquel Brun on Sunday morning. The Polish girls needed three sets (15-21 21-15 15-7) against Austria’s Katharina Schützenhofer and Lena Plesiutschnig.
“It’s great feeling”, Krebs said right after they beat Spain. “I am so happy we played a very good match. This is our first final at the World Championships and it feels great.”
Long service runSpain’s Soria and Brun were no match for the German girls. After the first set (21-6), the Spanish just stopped playing. Wlk had a run of thirteen points on her service at the start of the second set, including at least four service aces.
“We really had a good service”, Wlk said. “The Spanish team was really ‘kaput’. They were not strong enough to play like they normally do.” Brun and Soria scored a few more points, but their first ever semifinal ended in one big deception.
Wlk had a message for whomever they would meet in the final. “We don’t care which team. We will take both in the final.” It turned out to be Poland.
Great comeback for Poland Kociolek and Gruszscynska had a great comeback against Austria after losing the first set. “In the first we could no do anything, we were sleepy and had no power”, Kociolek said. “We thought we would lose because we were so tired after all these matches. To be honest we really had some difficult three set matches yesterday and the day before.”
Austria was very successful in the first set with targeting Gruszscynska, the blocker, all the time. “I am not so tall and it is difficult to play on the block. But I think I kept my head cool.” Kociolek: “We won with our heads. We kept our cool after losing the first. We did not panic, for us losing was the motivation to do better.”
On the other side of the net Schützenhofer, just returning from a serious shoulder injury, could not cope with the pressure and Austria was not able to stop the Polish girls. Kociolek finished the match at their first match point.
Eighteen-year old Kociolek won the U19 two years ago in Umag with a different partner defeating Schützenhofer and Plesiutschnig in the final. “This is my lucky place”, she said. “We also know the German team. We met them at the European U20. We won back than and we hope to repeat that today.”
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