Against Mol and Sörum, Perušič and Schweiner succeeded only for the third time out of 12 games they played with the reigning Olympic champions from Tokyo. In the quarterfinals in Tlaxcala, the Czech volleyball players won the first set clearly 21:14, but lost the second set by the same ratio. They showed stronger nerves in the tie-break and won 15:12.
“We succeeded in something we didn’t even believe we were capable of. Beating Norway in one of the most important tournaments,” said Perušič. “They are by far the best team in the world. We knew we had to play well and have a bit of luck, as happened to us especially at the start of the tie-break, to beat them,” he added.
“It’s a big win for us,” Schweiner said. “Mol and Sörum are of course incredible, but we played excellently and were a bit lucky. We didn’t do well in the group, but in the play-offs we got better every game. We look like a completely different team. Hopefully it will be even better in the semi-finals and we’ll get to the final,” wished Schweiner.
The Czech pair dominated the Pro Tour Elite tournament in Paris at the beginning of October, but initially struggled at the World Championship. She won only one out of three matches in the group and had to worry about promotion. Perušič and Schweiner entered the playoffs with a win over Spain’s 2013 European champions Pablo Herrera and Adrián Gavira, which kicked them off.
“The match against Herrera and Gaviro was a turning point. We finally performed according to our expectations and that gave us the confidence to continue like this,” stated Perušič.
Together with Schweiner, they are attacking the best Czech result at the World Championships, which is the bronze of Eva Celbová and Sonia Dosoudilová from 2001. The men’s maximum so far was 17th place.
Crabb and Brunner, who are only the 21st seeded pair, knocked out Brazilians Pedro Solberg and Guto in two sets in the quarterfinals.
2023-10-15 00:45:19
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