Credit: volleyball.org.au
Crowds packed into Coolangatta Beach for the Mahindra Australian Beach Volleyball Championships on Sunday to witness Super Sunday in its finest.
The women’s gold medal game rounded out a sensational three days of action, with Stefanie Fejes (NSW) and Jana Milutinovic (SA) getting their redemption, going one better this year to claim the Mahindra Australian Beach Volleyball Championship crown.
After finishing with the silver medal last year, Fejes and Milutinovic came into this weekend’s tournament ranked as the number one seeds and in red hot form. The final saw them take on Queenslanders and seventh seeds Phoebe Bell and Caitlin Bettenay to claim the match 2:0 (22-20, 21-19).
Milutinovic was overcome with emotion as she reflected on not only a great day of competition, but a stellar 2023-2024 Australian Beach Volleyball Tour that saw the pair win at three of the four stops.
“I’ve got no words for this moment right now. The last five weeks have been a lot but we’ve really pushed and given it our all and I’m really proud of us for the way we’ve been able to back it up every week,” she said.
“We’ve got a lot of trust in our team. Credit to Caitlin and Phoebe, they really pushed us today, made us grind it out and fight for those couple of points that in the end, made the difference. It was a really good game,” said Milutinovic.
Fejes echoed her partner’s sentiments and said that today’s result is the culmination of a “dream” beach volleyball season.
“We’ve really pushed, and I couldn’t be happier or prouder with our result, I really can’t believe it. Thank you everyone for the support, we’re so happy, I’ve got no words.
“Defense is always a puzzle that you’re trying to solve throughout the game, so just piecing it together as best as we could out there today was our aim. We really played our best game and this is just such a great end to a great season for us,” she said.
The women’s bronze match earlier in the day saw international wildcards Maya Gessner and Delaney Peranich deny Aussies and second seeds Georgia Johnson and Tara Phillips the bronze medal, taking out the match 2-1 (16-21; 21-17; 15-10). The pair from the USA played through qualification to make it to the bronze medal match, playing nine games over the tournament.
Manly duo Declan Tiso and Mateusz Zieba staged one of the biggest upsets of the season this weekend, winning the gold medal and the men’s 2024 Mahindra…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Asian Volleyball Confederation…