Finland nets first FIVB World Tour medal, plays Germany for Antalya women’s gold

Antalya, Turkey, May 14, 2016 – Taru Lahti and Riikka Lehtonen made history for Finland here Saturday mid-day by becoming the first women’s or men’s team to win a Beach Volleyball medal on the FIVB World Tour by upsetting a team from Argentina in the second of two semi-finals on the BeachPark center court at the US$150,000 Antalya Open.

Seeded 15th in the second annual event, Lahti and Lehtonen posted a 2-0 (25-23, 21-14) win in 43 minutes over sixth-seeded Ana Gallay and Georgina Klug of Argentina to advance to the gold medal match where the Fins will challenge top-seeded Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst of Germany for the $11,000 first-place prize.

Ludwig and Walkenhorst advanced to their seventh FIVB World Tour gold medal match by defeating seventh-seeded compatriots Katrin Holtwick and Ilka Semmler 2-0 (24-22, 21-16) in 38-minutes. It was the first meeting between the two teams on the international circuit since May 2014 when Holtwick and Semmler defeated their German rivals in the semi-finals at the Czech Republic Open in Prague.

GERMANS LEAD 3-1

The gold medal meeting will be the fifth confrontation between the two teams on the FIVB World Tour with …

continue reading in source www.fivb.org