The German number one: Grafing's U16 volleyball player with (back, from left) Assistant coach Uli Schäffner, Timur Kröger, Janno Jell, Lukas Schäffner, Robin Bein, coach Fabian Siegel; (center, from left) Tristan Mohr, Moritz Haußmann, Nick Kaupa, Jakob Mayershofer, Mika Werner, Lian Halm, Basti Ziller and (front) Mika Takano. © Association
The U16 volleyball juniors have won the German Indoor Championship for the second time after 2019. In Brandenburg an der Havel, the team of Fabian Siegel and Uli Schäffner was crowned champion. The outstanding player of the tournament was Tristan Mohr.
Grafing – The journey was chaotic. "Due to the rail strike, our booked ICE departed 35 minutes early from Munich. Then we waited two hours for a completely overcrowded train," reported Fabian Siegel. During the following four-hour train ride in the direction of Berlin, the junior coach of TSV Grafing and his co-coach Uli Schäffner were presented with a number of "very funny pictures" on his patrols through the seven wagons, albeit only in retrospect.
Since almost none of the U16 volleyball players had managed to get a seat, the boys huddled between suitcases in the aisle, lay under the benches - or were forced to lounge in the luggage rack. Perhaps it also had to do with the unrelaxed journey that Siegel's protégés initially had a surprisingly difficult time in the first group game against Kieler TV.
"In the end, however, we won all the sets extremely clearly," said Siegel, summarizing the performance of his duties against Kiel, Lüneburg and Biedenkopf from the point of view of "very positive", as the four youngest Grafinger Sebastian Ziller, Lukas Schäffner, Jakob Mayershofer and Nick Kaupa (all born in 2010) were able to collect a lot of playing time in their first DM participation.
That changed as planned on the second day of the tournament at the latest after the trouble-free 2-0 quarter-final victory over SG Heidelberg. After all, semi-final opponents Leipzig had counted Siegel among the narrow circle of title favorites before the start of the tournament - and was all the more astonished that the Bärenstädter virtually led the L.E. Volleys in the first set with 25:20. "Unfortunately, we had big problems out of nowhere in the second and were all off the roll," said the TSV coach this time wondering about the exact opposite result.
"Tristan also carried us through the final and scored us points in every pressure situation. He was the outstanding player of the tournament.
TSV coach Fabian Siegel
It was largely thanks to Tristan Mohr in the tie-break that the Grafinger title dream did not burst here after deficits of 8:12 and 12:14. "Tristan had an energy like I've never seen before and saved us with three aces and a point of attack," enthused Siegel after Mika Takano had won the final ticket for the Bears with an ace to make it 19-17.
"Tristan also carried us through the final and scored us points in every pressure situation. He was the outstanding player of the tournament." The atmosphere in the packed Brandenburg hall was also outstanding, as the host team of the VC Blau-Weiß surprisingly faced the TSV juniors in the title match. Among the more than 700 raging spectators, six clubs had also shown solidarity with the Upper Bavarians and stood up to the megaphones and drums of the Brandenburgers.
"Very nervous" Siegel's team gave up the first round 20:25 in the Brandenburg cauldron and was also 2:5 behind at the beginning of set two. Then Fabian Siegel took a timeout, appealed not to "lose heart", and then applauded a Grafinger dominance run to 25:18. Tristan Mohr repeatedly blocked himself to the difference player in the tie-break (12:10), before the Brandenburgers threw Lukas Schäffner's last serve a good meter into the sideline after accepting the four.
With the 15:12 and the Grafinger jubilation grape, the title circle that some players had started in this U16 competition in 2019, when they won the first national title in Grafingen's club history, somehow closed. Almost at the same time, they celebrated U20 gold in Mühldorf (we reported). However, champion coach Fabian Siegel wanted to emphasize a difference to the first gold generation: "With only one exception, we are a complete team of Grafinger boys."