Lucerne, Switzerland, May 17, 2015 – Canada’s Jamie Broder and Kristina Valjas sweep Austria’s Stefanie Schwaiger and Barbara Hansel 2:0 (21-18, 21-15) in the bronze medal game at the inaugural FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Lucerne Open 2015 and prove that their gold medal at the Fuzhou Open wasn’t just a lucky strike.
Everybody was excited for the women’s bronze medal matchup; Fuzhou Open gold medallists Broder/Valjas were willing to recover after their first defeat in twelve consecutive victories in this year’s FIVB World Tour. Schwaiger/Hansel from Austria, on the other hand, were eager to clinch bronze in their first tournament as team.
The two teams started strongly into the matchup; no one was able to take over the reins. Broder/Valjas, however, were cold-blooded enough in the very end of the set to get a lead – and end it 21-18.
This first-set win inspired the Canadians to play their best Beach Volleyball – and to overpower Schwaiger/Hansel with their well-placed serves and good blocking game; this strong performance in the second set resulted in a 21-15 win. The Canadians harvest their first-ever bronze medal in the FIVB World Tour and the prize money in the amount of 6,000 US Dollar.
Stefanie Schwaiger from Austria couldn’t hide her disappointment after the game. “We kept the game close in the first set – but committed too many unforced errors in the second; that was the reason why we weren’t able to improve our game.”
Canada’s Jamie Broder, on the other hand, sees their second consecutive medal in this year’s FIVB World Tour as an important step in the right direction. “Some of our opponents were surprised when we won our first-ever gold medal at the Fuzhou Open two weeks ago; but I think that was just our break-through after the big efforts we had made,” Jamie Broder explained after the game. “This second medal within fourteen days proves that the win at Fuzhou wasn’t just a lucky strike. Now we want to hunt our next medal at the Prague Open next week,” teammate Kristina Valjas concluded.