Apeldoorn, the Netherlands, June 30, 2015 - Poland's Karolina Baran and Jagoda Gruszczynska are grabbing the 2015 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships with both hands. With each of the women rising up from youth level, the pair is now competing with the world's best.
Baran/Gruszczynska earned their first win of the tournament over Nathalia Alfaro/Karen Cope Charles from Costa Rica.
"I think it was good, but in the second set we made some stupid mistakes and we lost it. It was important for us to win this match 2-0 because not every third place is going through to the next round, but we are still happy that we can win," said Gruszczynska.
Despite losing their two other pool matches, the young Polish pair gave Slovakia's Natalia Dubovcova/Dominika Nestarcova a hard time taking the match to 2-1 (21-14, 20-22, 19-17).
"It's our first world champs and we are happy to be here. We are feeling really good because we know that we can win some matches in the world champs. The first match was so close against Slovakia and they are a really good team so we are happy to play here, it's really amazing, a big chance for us.
Here there are a lot of points that will let us play on the satellite tournaments and World Tour so it's very important," said Baran.
Baran won the 2011 Youth World Championship in Umag, but admits it is not the same as playing in the Netherlands this time.
"Here is a big difference between the Youth World Championships because here you really have the best players in the world," said Baran.
The pair earned a place in the draw and will now travel to The Hague to play in round one of the single elimination phase.