Xiamen, China, October 8, 2014 – Australia’s Jordan
Mowen and Justine Mowen beat Japan’s Keiko Urata and Yui Nagata 2-0 (21-13,
21-18) to go through to the main draw at the 2014 FIVB Beach Volleyball World
Tour Xiamen Open on Wednesday.
Mowen/Mowen carefully adjusted their play to suit the
breezy conditions on Guanyinshan Gold
Beach for the first women’s qualification match of the day. With the main draw
just one match away, the Australian girls made sure they grasped the chance.
“We’re feeling relieved and excited to get more international
opportunities, we’ve never made it before so just looking forward to pool play
and getting that experience,” said Justine Mowen.
Urata/Nagata took the lead
in the second set and the two teams began to exchange points before Mowen/Mowen
regrouped and closed out the match 21-18.
“These conditions are pretty tough so it’s all about
the ball control, we’ve played a lot against the Japanese so we knew we had to
step it up and hit hard, use our height and all the other things that we have
as advantages,” said Justine.
“We tried to keep things a little bit more together and
not so big and obviously being aware of which way the wind is going so we can
run that way or hit that way,” said
Jordan Mowen.
Mowen/Mowen began playing on the FIVB World Tour in
2009 but had yet to make it into the main draw. The Australian pair are ready
to seize the opportunity.
“We hope to get some wins, to enjoy the experience and
have no regrets and just put it all out there because we’ve never made it
before into the main draw so we’d just like to make the most of it,” said
Jordan.
“All year we’ve been playing with the pressure of
having to win to get through, so it’ll be less pressure. We can enjoy it and
maybe we can play a bit more relaxed and play a bit better too,” said Justine.
Turnerova/Tomašeková’s
preparation pays off
It was another first for Slovakia’s Tina Turnerova and
Gabriela Tomašeková who utilised their experience to dominate the younger
Chinese pair of Wang Xinxin and Wang Yuanyuan. Turnerova/Tomašeková had
done their homework, putting into place an effective plan before going into the
match.
“We were definitely lucky to get this team. Of course we
were enquiring about the team and you really cannot compete against our
experience, which is our higher age and this is an advantage in beach
volleyball. A difference in other fields of life, but in beach volleyball age
is very, very good. So we were analysing the team and we found out that the
system that we chose was right and we came to the final score 2-0, so that was perfect,”
said Turnerova.
Intelligent play by Turnerova/Tomašeková made the
Slovakians the dominant pair throughout leading to their two set win 2-0
(21-16, 21-12).
“We have been trying for two years to get to here. Now
it’s the first time to get into the qualification and we really got a chance on
the table, so we took it and it’s really a very nice feeling, I can’t describe,”
said Turnerova.
Our first goal is done so we are satisfied for now but
we need to have a little meeting, then we will analyse what we need to do next
and we’ll do our best to reach the highest of our possibilities.”
In the final qualification match of the day Laura Bloem
and Marloes Wesselink from the Netherlands faced Japan’s Miyuki Matsumura and
Hiroko Matsuyama. The Dutch pair beat Miyuki/Matsuyama 2-0 (21-11, 21-16) in 31 minutes and will
now hope for similar success in the main draw as their ninth place finish at the
2014 Anapa Open.
With the Grand Slam portion of the 2014 FIVB World Tour
now complete, the tour continues after Xiamen with four double-gender FIVB Open
events along with one men-only FIVB Open tournament. The tour will travel to Argentina for the FIVB
Parana Open (Oct. 28-Nov. 2) before heading to Doha for the men-only FIVB Qatar
Open (Nov. 4-8). India will then host the double-gender FIVB Vizag Open (Nov.
25-30), before the 2014 calendar comes to a close in South Africa with the
double-gender FIVB Mangaung Open (Dec. 9-14).