Warsaw, Poland, June 13, 2019 – USA’s Emily Stockman and Kelley Larsen extended their winning streak at the four-star Warsaw stop on the 2019 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour to four games after scoring two pool victories on Thursday to advance directly to the second round of single elimination.
The American pair, seeded 11th in the women’s main draw, had already won their country quota match on Tuesday and one qualification match on Wednesday. On the first day of the main draw, they started off with a 2-0 (21-18, 21-17) victory over 22nd-seeded Joy Stubbe & Marleen Ramond-van Iersel of the Netherlands. In the big match for the first place in Pool F, Stockman & Larsen delivered a 2-0 (21-15, 22-20) upset of Canada’s Sarah Pavan & Melissa Humana-Paredes seeded sixth to make it straight to the round of 16.
“We came here, won the country quota, fought through the qualifier and we are playing some pretty good clean volleyball right now, so it feels good. We are both taking care of our jobs and it’s been really fun. There is still a lot of work to be done, so we are ready to keep pushing through,” Emily Stockman said.
“I thought we did a good job serving today, which helped us a lot in our matches. Fighting through the country quota and the qualifier, we had been through two matches already and we were ready to play today. We’re going to keep rolling,” Kelley Larsen added.
Two more American pairs found their way to the round of 16 by winning their pools on Thursday. Ninth-seeded Sarah Sponcil & Kelly Claes disappointed the home crowd at centre court with a hard-fought 2-1 (24-22, 15-21, 15-11) victory over Polish favourites Kinga Wojtasik & Katarzyna Kociolek, seeded eighth, for the first place in Pool H. Before that, they had disposed of China’s Chen Xue & Xinxin Wang in straight sets – 2-0 (21-13, 21-16).
Third-seeded Alexandra Klineman & April Ross cruised to two speedy wins in Pool C - 2-0 (21-14, 21-14) over France’s Alexandra Jupiter & Aline Chamereau and 2-0 (21-15, 21-12) over Switzerland’s Nina Betschart & Tanja Hueberli.
Brazil also sent forth three of their teams straight to the second elimination round. 13th-seeded Maria Antonelli & Carolina Solberg Salgado were quite emphatic in both their Pool D matches. First, they managed a 2-0 (21-17, 21-15) win over Slovakia’s Andrea Strbova & Natalia Dubovcova. Then they upset fourth-seeded Canadians and World Ranking leaders Heather Bansley & Brandie Wilkerson with a 2-0 (21-13, 21-18) shutout.
The two top seeds in the tournament, Ana Patricia Silva Ramos & Rebecca Cavalcanti Barbosa Silva and Agatha Bednarczuk & Eduarda Santos Lisboa, won Pools A and B, respectively, with two victories each. While Ana Patricia & Rebecca did not drop a set against Polish wild cards Martyna Kloda & Agata Ceynowa – 2-0 (21-15, 21-11), and against Spanish standouts Liliana Fernandez Steiner & Elsa Baquerizo McMillan – 2-0 (21-13, 21-19), their compatriots Agatha & Duda began with a 2-0 (21-16, 21-9) landslide against Poland’s Monika Brzostek & Aleksandra Wachowicz, but then had to work really hard towards a 2-1 (23-21, 19-21, 15-8) victory over Italy’s Marta Menegatti & Viktoria Orsi Toth.
Nadezda Makroguzova spikes past Taliqua Clancy’s block
21st-seeded Russians Nadezda Makroguzova & Svetlana Kholomina were the lowest ranked team to win their pool. In their first match, they came back from a set down against USA’s Sara Hughes & Summer Ross (#12) to claim a 2-1 (16-21, 21-19, 15-10) victory. In the Pool E final, they produced a 2-0 (21-17, 22-20) shutout of fifth-seeded Australians Taliqua Clancy & Mariafe Artacho.
In Pool G, seventh-seeded Sanne Keizer & Madelein Meppelink of the Netherlands grabbed the top spot with a 2-0 (21-19, 21-15) win over Greek wild cards Vasiliki Arvaniti & Panagiota Karagkouni and a 2-0 (21-17, 21-15) victory over Switzerland’s Joana Heidrich & Anouk Verge-Depre.
Sanne Keizer in action
The remaining eight teams to play in the round of 16 will emerge from the round of 24, where the third-placed teams in the pools will challenge the pool runners-up. Still in contention are three duos from Germany, two pairs each from Canada and Switzerland, and one each from Australia, Brazil, China, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and USA.