Lausanne, Switzerland, June 9, 2019 – Top seeds Katharina Schützenhöfer and Lena Plesiutschnig gave the 1,800 crowd at the Baden Stadium plenty to cheer when they won gold at the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Baden 1-Star on Sunday.
It is the second year that the Austrian town has hosted a World Tour event and it runs from June 6 to June 10 with the winning teams claiming $7,500 in prize money.
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The Austrian pair beat the Netherlands Katja Stam and Julia Wouters 2-1 (21-17, 21-12) to improve on the silver they won in 2018. It is their first World Tour gold since they topped the podium at the Mersin 3-Star in May 2018.
“We are obviously extremely excited and happy to win this tournament,” Schützenhöfer said. “I would like to thank the crowd for cheering for us, as without their help, we would not have achieved this result.”
Sisters Nadine and Teresa Strauss ensured that there would be two Austrian teams on the podium when they beat Belgium’s Sarah Cools and Lisa Van den Vonder who had begun the tournament in the qualifiers.
The Strauss sisters needed to save four match points to turn the momentum of the match and win 2-1 (21-19, 18-21, 19-17).
“It was just amazing, and we played beyond our limits,” Nadine Strauss said. “We both had cramps and it was obviously very challenging to play under such conditions, but it was very important to win before such a great crowd.”
