The Australian pair is set for a rousing return to Roi-Et after winning the age-group continental title last July
Published 06:11, 08 Nov 2023
Australia’s Jasmine Fleming & Stefanie Fejes are among the top favorites in the women’s tournament of the 2023 FIVB Volleyball U21 World Championship, as they come back to the central northeastern province of Roi-Et after winning the continental title for the same age category last July.
“Oh, the pressure.” Fejes exclaimed with a laugh.
The Australian pair need not be pressured to play in front of a huge Thai crowd. After all, the competitions where they played as a team were in Thailand.
Their first two tournaments together was in Udon Thani in 2020 and Phuket in 2021 for the Asian Championships, finishing 17th and fifth overall, respectively. The duo revisited Thailand in July this year, taking the Asian U21 Beach Volleyball Championship title in Roi-Et.
“We have come to this tournament because this will be our last time (in the age-group competitions). We had a pretty good prep. We have the same goal that we want to get on the podium,” the 20-year-old Beach Pro Tour Coolangata Futures winner Fejes said.
“We’ve been to a couple of World Championships before, but this is the last one for both of us, so we want to give it our all. We want to end up on the podium, but also just growing together as a team and playing our best in every game, and just fighting until the end.”
They did just that on their first match in the main draw, beating Tuesday’s big winner, German pair Elea Beutel & Clara Dreßen, in straight sets. The Australians had an easy win in the first set 21-7 but showed composure in the second by coming back to win the last few points to seal the match victory at 21-16.
“I think it was a good. Obviously, we were a bit nervous before the game – big tournament and whatnot. But we just went out there and tried to do our own stuff well, and the energy from the crowd and the environment is just amazing. We had a lot of fun out there,” Fleming said.
“It was definitely like we had our tactical game against them, but the main focus was on our side. If we kept the pressure on ours and kept it pretty clean and what we wanted to run. It was going to work and it paid off,” Fejes added.
Fleming & Fejes are fun, fearless and flourishing in their careers, but they have a distinct characteristic to their partnership that is backed by great Aussie inspiration and mentoring.
“I would say that our best characteristic is our offense. We like to be aggressive. We like to handset, run variations and hit the ball,” Fleming said.
“As for our idols, it’s hard to look past Taliqua (Clancy) and Mariafe (Artacho Del Solar), but we’ve also got Josh Slack, who’s in our coaching staff. He went to three Olympics, so he embodies the Australian style of offense.”
