Meppelink nets Olympic & European satisfaction

With her spot for the Tokyo Summer Games almost certain, Madelein Meppelink will join Rebekka Kadijk (2000, 2004, 2008) and Reinder Nummerdor (2008, 2012 and 2016) as the Netherlands' only three-time beach Olympians.

The 31-year-old Meppelink has been competing internationally since 2005 and is currently playing with her ninth partner as she and Sanne Keizer are ranked 10th on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour list and No. 8 on the provisional Tokyo Olympic roll.

“We are looking forward to competing in Tokyo,” said Meppelink, who started playing full-time with Keizer on the World Tour in 2018. “The changes weren’t easy to handle but we are excited and hope that we can play this summer in Tokyo. We took the downtime to mentally rest and started last October with full preparation to Tokyo.”

As for the pandemic, Meppelink said it was “tough at first since Sanne and I both like to have structure and know what we are up to. However, we found a good way with our whole team to look at the benefits of having one more year of preparation and we know we are on a good path of preparation.”

Early days

Meppelink’s first Olympic participation was earned via the FIVB Continental Cup in 2012 when she and Sophie van Gestel secured a spot for the London Summer Games. The Dutch pair placed ninth at the Horse Guards Parade venue after being eliminated by eventual bronze medal winners Juliana Felisberta and Larissa Franca of Brazil.

“Sophie and I trained together in the same group for a while when I was playing with Marloes Wesselink,” said Meppelink. “In 2011 Marloes and I weren’t performing well enough to have a chance for the Olympics. Sophie had just recovered from a severe knee injury and I asked her to play together to see if we could make it to the Olympics in London. From that moment on Sophie and I played tournaments together and right away we had a good connection on the court. Our personalities were a good match.”

Highlighting the Meppelink/van Gestel partnership was a gold medal together at a 2013 World Tour stop in Argentina where the Dutch pair posted wins over three Brazilian teams in their final four matches of the stop in Corrientes. A year earlier in Austria, Meppelink and van Gestel placed second in Klagenfurt prior to the London Olympics.

After playing in 23 of her 25 World Tour events with Wesselink with a 40-44 match mark together, Meppelink compiled a 79-55 World Tour record with van Gestel for 27 events. Meppelink and van Gestel also captured a European satellite event in Turkey where they defeated Rio 2016 Olympic pairs in the final four rounds - Elsa Baquerizo/Liliana Fernandez of Spain and Laura Ludwig/Kira Walkenhorst of Germany.

Road to Rio with Van Iersel

In 2014, Meppelink teamed with Marleen van Iersel to begin their journey for Olympic qualification together for Rio. The Dutch duo won the European Championships that season while posting a 42-19 World Tour record with two podium placements and a No. 5 ranking on the FIVB point’s list.

“I knew Marleen for many years already as a training partner and when I started playing beach volleyball, Marleen and Sanne were the top players in the Netherlands and I was honoured I was allowed to train with them,” said Meppelink. “In 2014, our partners stopped playing and it was a natural move to start playing together.”

The 2015 season was also productive for the Meppelink/van Iersel partnership as the pair maintained their No. 5 ranking on the World Tour points list. The pair won 42 of 61 FIVB matches and placed on five podiums with a fifth-place finish at the inaugural World Tour Finals on Fort Lauderdale beach in the United States.

“Marleen and I matched each other very well on the court,” said Meppelink. “To have a great setter like Marleen next to me made attacking easy for me. We had a good team dynamic on the court and could push each other to a high level of beach volleyball together with our coaches.”

Meppelink’s partnership ended with van Iersel following the Rio 2016 Olympic Games when the pair placed ninth and dropped to 17th on the international points list. For 31 World Tour events together, Meppelink and van Iersel posted a 112-56 record with eight podium placements, 10 final four finishes and 16 quarterfinal appearances.

Partnership with Sanne Keizer

Following the 2016 season, Meppelink reunited with van Gestel for six events in 2017 while playing once with Keizer at a Dutch event in The Hague where the pair split four matches and placed ninth after being eliminated by eventual winners Maria Antonelli and Carolina Salgado by losing the third set 17-15.

“After Sophie told me for the second time that she stopped playing and we couldn’t continue together I had to find a new partner,” said Meppelink. “During some injuries of Sophie that season I already played with Sanne and that went actually surprisingly good. When Sanne and I were training partners in 2012 we weren’t really big fans of each other, but years later we actually discovered we are a good match on the court.”

After starting the 2018 calendar year slowly with a 17th and two 25ths in their first three events, Meppelink and Keizer placed second in their fourth event at a May stop in Turkey. At the end of July, the Dutch pair topped the European Championship podium in The Hague and then placed third at the Vienna Major the next week by defeating Antonelli and Carolina for the bronze medal.

During the 2019 calendar year, Meppelink and Keizer collected two more FIVB bronze medals at stops in the Czech Republic and Mexico. In 24 World Tour events together, Meppelink and Keizer have compiled a 58-42 record with four medals and seven quarterfinals appearances.

“I think with Sanne, we battle as a team really well,” said Meppelink. “We both have strong personalities so sometimes that creates some tension. We were particularly good at working our way through these moments. Playing-wise we developed a game that suited our strengths on the court and because we are a good blend of matching and complementary characteristics, we have a lot of assets on the court.”

When asked about playing with van Gestel as compared to van Iersel and Keizer, Meppelink said “Sophie's and my personality matched very naturally. With Marleen and Sanne we had to put in more work as a team to make our characters match well on the court. Sophie is a very quick defender and very disciplined. When I play with Sanne, it is more about reading the game defensively.”

As for playing with van Iersel as compared to van Gestel and Keizer, Meppelink added that she and “Marleen are quite different in personality. With that, it was a challenge for us to communicate the best way we could understand each other. This was for me a big difference in playing with Marleen compared to Sophie and Sanne.”

When asked about playing with Keizer as compared to Sophie and Marleen, Meppelink said “with two strong personalities, it sometimes creates tension, and we didn’t know how to deal with it in the best way. Now we know each other very well and we know how to deal with these situations and actually how to push each other to a higher level.”

Read more: Roster 100 to showcase stars of volleyball and beach volleyball

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