Laura Ludwig, Germany – “It was a pretty good start. It’s a really important win. Even with all three teams of each pool advancing, it’s great to be first so you avoid playing three matches on Friday, which would be really hard. They almost came back in the second set. Thank God I was passing well, so we had an easy set and I was just going for the line no matter what. It was great that it worked. It’s special for us to play in front of our home crowd after all the titles we won this past year”.
Kira Walkenhorst, Germany - “It was a really tough match. It’s a long season for all teams and both of us looked tired, so it was important for us to have our fans pushing us. As more as we play them we know them better and they know us as well. We won most of the matches we played recently so maybe they are a good team for us to play against”.
Talita Antunes, Brazil – “They played really well and we made a lot of mistakes. Even though the match was very close, but you cannot make so many mistakes against a team that plays on their level. But I think we lost when we could and I hope we can play better when the single-elimination starts”.
Larissa Franca, Brazil – “We made too many mistakes. They are obviously a very good team and we cannot afford that. We had a good strategy, which was working in a certain way, but our mistakes gave them the confidence they needed to serve better”.