Toronto, Canada, September 15, 2016 - Rio Olympic champions Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst of Germany started strong, but Argentina's Ana Gallay and Georgina Klug finished better in winning a SWATCH FIVB World Tour Finals match here Thursday afternoon on Polson Pier.
In defeating the German champions for the first-time in seven FIVB World Tour matches, Gallay and Klug scored a 2-1 (17-21, 21-18, 16-14) Pool B win in 51 minutes. The setback snapped Ludwig and Walkenhorst's 13-match FIVB World Tour winning streak, including seven-straight at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
Kira Walkenhorst - “It was really a tough match. Every team here is really tired. At the beginning of the match we played pretty well and were aggressive. At the end of the first set we got less in our details and they used it. In the third set we did some good things but we didn’t keep it the whole game and that’s why we lost. We have to talk about the last game and where we can switch something to what is working better, then we will focus again on the next match.”
Georgina Klug - “They are the best team in the world. We knew we had to do our best to defeat them."
“Last year we watched the tournament in Fort Lauderdale and said that we wanted to be there one day. And now here we are.”
Laura Ludwig - “We made too many mistakes. We didn’t serve as well as we can. Losing that second set probably broke our necks.”
On being the Olympic champions: “We had a really good tournament. Now we need to bring that energy back to the court. We don’t feel pressure.”
Kira Walkenhorst - “That was not our best match, which is tough when you are playing against a good team.”
“Now we will talk about what we can switch, and prepare for the next match."