WG Karlsruhe at the DHM Beachvolleyball 2013 in Kiel

In cooperation of Kiel University and the Schleswig-Holstein Volleyball Association (SHVV), the tournament was held on the beach of the Olympic Center in Kiel-Schilksee, just like last year.

In bright sunshine the qualification for the main field was played on June 3rd. A total of 39 men's teams and 31 women's teams took part; for the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), 3 teams started: the team Sonja Stöffler and Mira Wehr, spontaneously formed for the DHM, unfortunately could not prevail against their opponents, but fought for every set (13:15, 16:18) and lost both qualification matches only narrowly. The partly very windy conditions and the soft, deep sand did not make it easy for the teams to implement their game on the beach of the Olympic Center Kiel-Schilksee.

The two men's teams Lennart Willms and Philipp Kautzmann, as well as Steffen Bekiersch and Thomas Heidebrecht also started in the qualification.
Willms/Kautzmann, who had stood in for another KIT team at short notice, lost their first match in strong wind clearly against the team Hessling/Mars from Rostock. After that, they won three games in a row, but then met the team Hessling/Mars again in the 5th game and missed the qualification for the main field with 1:2.

The second KIT men's team (Bekiersch/Heidebrecht) started very well into the qualification tournament and first won three matches in a row. Afterwards, however, Bekiersch/Heidebrecht could not prevail against very strong opponents and finally also failed against the team Hessling/Mars from Rostock. Thus, the second KIT men's team also missed the qualification only very narrowly, but said goodbye to the tournament with a good performance.

The situation was different for the first women's team Vanessa Reich (FH Karlsruhe) and Silvia Schmid (KIT). After the good performance of the team Preuß/Schmid (Uni Stuttgart/KIT) at the DHM last year (17th place), the team was already seeded in the main round and therefore did not have to qualify.

On Tuesday, Reich/Schmid started in the round of the best 32 teams and already lost the first game narrowly in three sets (1:2; 8:15, 15:11, 15:17) against the team Dannheim/Grande, which started for Kiel University. The second match against the 7th seeded team Lehmann/Schulze from the University of Magdeburg was also lost 0:2 (16:18, 10:15) afterwards. Lehmann/Schulze successfully defended their strong 7th place in the further course of the tournament.
Finally, Reich/Schmid finished the main round and the tournament with the 25th place and already have the goal to improve or at least defend this result at next year's DHM Beach Volleyball.
The winner of the women's tournament was the team Laggner/Olszewska (University of Hamburg), in the men's tournament Hinrichsen/Müller prevailed in the "Kiel final", in which both teams started for Kiel University.