Schwaiger sisters hoping family values take them far at Rome 2011
Stefanie Schwaiger and sister Doris are aiming to repeat their fifth place finish from 2009 at the FIVB Swatch World Championships Rome 2011 powered by smart.
Rome, Italy, June 14 – Austria’s Doris and Stefanie Schwaiger are the highest ranked sisters in the women’s draw at the FIVB Swatch World Championships Rome 2011 powered by smart and aim to match their fifth place finish from 2009.
However, the Austrian siblings slipped to a 21-19, 21-16 loss Maria Tsiartsiani and Vasiliki Arvaniti of Greece in their opening match.
“First we would like to reach the top 10 and if we reach that then we would like to be top five like the last World Championships when we were fifth too,” Doris said. “And so we will try again to reach the top five.
“(Before arriving) we had the same mood that we have now. It didn’t change just because we lost the one match. We were very looking forward to it and are happy to be here.”
Doris is the elder of the sisters by just over a year and the Schwaigers are one of three sets of sisters in the women’s competition at Rome 2011.
Brazil’s Maria Clara Salgado and Carolina Salgado are seeded 10th, while Finnish twins Erika and Emilia Nystrom are ranked 21st.
“Usually we do everything together and we’ve been used to it since we’ve been young, so it’s no problem and good like this,” Stefanie said.
“We have played with each other since the beginning, so we know each other very well. We know what the other one thinks. It means you don’t have to ask your partner about anything. The bad thing is that sometimes we know too much about the other one.”
