What an amazing first set by both teams, very high level and so many intense rallies! 
Susan Schut has been such a great discovery by Koslowski, even though she made a crucial mistake in the end it's amazing how she managed to arrive on this level in just three months! Stuttgart puts a lot of pressure on her with serves but so far she's holding up, I thought with all their injuries OH2 would be a much bigger issue for Schwerin.
Segura retiring is such a waste, IMO this season has been the best of her career at least among the years she played in Germany. She could be very valuable for a few more years I think 
No doubt that the both right teams are in the finals.
Rivers being subbed out is something you don't see that often 
But Schwerin scouted her very well certainly.
Schwerin 
Dambrink looks quite good today/when she's not overloaded with sets!
Today Dambrink >>> Rivers!
Never thought I'd see that day, but yes Elles was really impressive today 
23 points / 56%. Hopefully she can take this flow onto NT!
Rivers with a very weak match but IMO Stuttgart's tactics weren't good.
One of Rivers' worst games that she has ever played for Stuttgart. There have been several games this season in which she hasn't played well. But in the important games she mostly performed well. Not today!
Good to see Dambrink in good shape! Also Marring became mature this season and is carrying the team in all aspects!
Erfurt wants to be back in the 1st devision next season.
The VBL will serve Erfurt the first league license on the "Silbertablett" (hard to translate German saying, means something like giving away without any conditions). I remind, how frustrated the VBL was, when Erfurt declared on it's own going down to new second league pro, after Erfurt reached competetiveness in the last few years (they were not really competitive in their first few years in first league).
Here is Erfurts own statement on their website:
Here is the "welcome back" official statement of the VBL:
A more general resume regarding the first league:
https://www.deutschlandfunk.de…iga-frauen-krise-100.html
Interesting, that the top teams doubled their budgets in the last few years (I guess, Stuttgart is now anywhere in 2.5 to 3 million Euro, similar to Berlin in men's league), the middle teams +30% and the last +10%.
Erfurt will have around 600,000 Euro available, similar to Suhl, from now 500,000 Euro in second league pro. I can only guess that the best others like Dingolfing (2.) and Köln/Cologne (3.) were playing with around 300,000 Euro in second league pro.
A quiet interesting interview with Jennifer Janiska was published by Sächsiche Zeitung today.(paywalled)
https://www.saechsische.de/spo…bschied-5988718-plus.html
She is still quiet frustrated about the clear loss against Stuttgart in the semifinals because the the players normally had the quality to be in the final. She said: "But in the end, we simply had too many strong characters in the team, and unfortunately we weren't able to bring them all together on the way to a common goal. The injuries sent us into a bit of a negative spiral that we were unable to get out of, both mentally and athletically."
She has no plans about her future yet. She wants to enjoy the calm and the time with her family now. But physically she doesn't feel like she wants to retire yet.
Display MoreA quiet interesting interview with Jennifer Janiska was published by Sächsiche Zeitung today.(paywalled)
https://www.saechsische.de/spo…bschied-5988718-plus.html
She is still quiet frustrated about the clear loss against Stuttgart in the semifinals because the the players normally had the quality to be in the final. She said: "But in the end, we simply had too many strong characters in the team, and unfortunately we weren't able to bring them all together on the way to a common goal. The injuries sent us into a bit of a negative spiral that we were unable to get out of, both mentally and athletically."
She has no plans about her future yet. She wants to enjoy the calm and the time with her family now. But physically she doesn't feel like she wants to retire yet.
I don't think, that Dresdens roaster had the necessary quality for the finals. Stuttgart and Schwerin were definitely the best teams of the season and deserved alone participation in the finals.
I don't think, that Dresdens roaster had the necessary quality for the finals. Stuttgart and Schwerin were definitely the best teams of the season and deserved alone participation in the finals.
Not how they played at the end of the season. But in November/December they showed that the quality was definitely there to beat Stuttgart and Schwerin.
That doesn't mean these two don't deserve to be in the finals. Right now both are by far the best german teams.
I assume that Erfurt will have more or less the same squad next season. You can't do much with 600,000 euros
After leaving Dresden, Jennifer Janiska gave another interview to Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, which turned into a short video (link) and a short audio report (link - audio contribution can be accessed in the article). Basically, the two articles are similar, even if there are small, subtle differences.
But I think the most important thing is that her family life situation was the deciding factor in not extending her contract in Dresden. Since she left Schwerin in 2019, she had been in a long-distance relationship with her boyfriend and later husband and that was exactly what she or they no longer wanted.
I think that suggests that she will go to Schwerin if she wants to continue playing. Because all other options lead to a long-distance relationship, as her husband appears to be tied to Schwerin professionally.