Cinja Tillmann and Svenja Muller who started their quest at the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Ostrava Elite16 event from the qualifiers, continued it all the way to the top of the podium, their first Tour medal as a team.

The 14th-seeded Germans defeated fourth-seeded Talita Antunes and Rebecca Silva in Sunday’s final. This silver medal was the second podium for the Brazilian team on the Beach Pro Tour. They took the bronze at the previous Elite16 tournament in Rosarito.

Switzerland’s Nina Brunner and Tanja Huberli, seeded 13th, who also started their Ostrava campaign from the qualifiers, claimed the bronze medal, their second on the Beach Pro Tour, after their third place at the Doha Challenge earlier in May.

· All the matches of the Ostrava Elite16 are available to watch on demand on Volleyball TV.

Talita and Rebecca maintained a slight advantage for the most part of a disputed first set of the gold medal match. It was very tight through 17-17, after which Tillmann and Muller broke away with a 19-17 advantage and stayed focused through the end, with Muller successfully hitting on two for 21-18. The Germans stormed into the second set on a 4-0 run and kept pace until Talita spiked into the net for the 2-0 (21-18, 21-16) close.

“It feels unreal! We came out of the qualifications and I can’t believe it right now. I’m very proud of our team!” Svenja Muller said. “Coming to Ostrava for the first time, our goal was to make the main draw, but then we played point for point and now I am overwhelmed. The Brazilians are very good and they fight for every point, but we have that too and we made it in the end!”

“I really don’t know what to say; it’s unbelievable, crazy for us! We were even planning to go for a German tournament if we didn’t make it out of the qualifications here, but we made it all the way to the final and we won,” added Cinja Tillmann. “We are just happy; we will be happy in the next days, while we are figuring out what actually happened. And then we will go on, because in two weeks there is another big tournament for us, the World Championships, and now we’re hungry for more...”

The first set of the all-Swiss bronze medal match was very competitive through 9-9. After that, some well-placed hits by Huberli and Brunner gave them a solid advantage against compatriots Joana Heidrich and Anouk Verge-Depre and they broke away to a 21-16 close, with Brunner spiking the winner. Riding the momentum, Huberli and Brunner grabbed an early 8-4 lead in the second set, but Heidrich and Verge-Depre fought back to level it at 13-13. The epilogue was all about Huberli and Brunner again. They took another lead until Brunner sent the ball to an empty spot in the very corner of the opponents’ half to close the game at 2-0 (21-16, 21-18).

“It was a really exhausting game, because we came all the way from the qualifications. But you don’t think how tired you are or who is on the other side. You just focus on yourself and do your thing and I think that worked out really well today,” Tanja Huberli commented. “After all, it was not so bad that we had a lot of games this week, because it helped us find our rhythm. We were really disappointed to lose a close semifinal yesterday, but if you had told me at the beginning of the tournament that we would be third, we would have signed. So the excitement is at a 100%!”

Ostrava Elite16 results

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