Pre-favourites claim top honours at historic German Snow Volleyball Tour premiere in Balderschwang

With sunny, glorious weather conditions and freezing temperatures below zero, four men’s teams contested this past weekend the first stop of the inaugural German Snow Volleyball National Tour against the backdrop of the Allgäu Alps, Bavaria, with a ticket at stake to compete at the German Snow Volleyball Championships in Oberstaufen scheduled for the end of February.

The event was run by local promoter HörnerDörfer in cooperation with the German Volleyball Association (DVV). Two teams from the Allgäu area and two from neighbouring Baden-Württemberg (Ulm) played a round-robin tournament. After recording icy minus twelve degrees the night before, the centre court, which is normally used as an outlet for the slopes of the Riedbergerhornbahn, was frozen as hard as a rock on Saturday morning. 
 
The favourite team around the bronze medal winner from the last German Championships, Florian Schweikart, clearly prevailed over their competitors. After the first two games, the rookies also got into the game. The Ulm team Baumgart/Klein/Knapp/Spodarev were able to hold their own against the other two newcomers and thus won two of their three matches. The TSV Oberstaufen team (Hunold, Kuschkowitz, Libbertz, Marsch) were delighted to win one game in the preliminary round. The teams just could not get enough of playing Snow Volleyball and continued to play unofficially even until sunset. 

On Sunday, the semi-finals kicked off the hot phase of the tournament.

Schweikart/Becker/Burbrink/Semmler secured a comprehensive 2-0 (15-6, 15-9) win against Ott/Schäfer/Überall. In the second semi-final, Baumgart/Klein/Knapp/Spodarev narrowly (12-15, 15-10, 15-12) won a hard-fought match against Hunold/Kuschkowitz/Libbertz/Marsch, who afterwards secured the bronze medal in the small final with a 2-1 victory. The final was a clear-cut affair. With 15-11, 15-8, the favourites emerged victorious from the historic German Snow Volleyball Tour premiere in emphatic style and thus directly secured their ticket to the German Championships in late February.
 
The tour will continue with the next stop on February 10 in Oberwiesenthal, after the tournament in Todtnauberg had to be cancelled by the organisers due to adverse weather conditions.

For further information, visit www.german-snowvolleyball.de