Elite16 - Paris, FRA - 2023

Americans and Brazilians top pools at Paris Elite16

Duda & Ana Patricia, Barbara & Carol, Kloth & Nuss and Hughes & Cheng jump directly into the quarterfinals

Published 07:08, 29 Sept 2023

At the end of women’s pool play at the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Paris Elite16 in France, Brazil’s Eduarda Santos Lisboa (Duda) & Ana Patricia Ramos and Barbara Seixas & Carol Solberg, and USA’s Taryn Kloth & Kristen Nuss and Sara Hughes & Kelly Cheng topped the final pool standings to secure direct advancement to the quarterfinals of the tournament. Another eight teams, placed second or third in their pools, also progressed to the single elimination stages, but will have to start them from the eighthfinals.

Watch the Beach Pro Tour Paris Elite16 main draw live on VBTV.

Top-seeded Duda & Ana Patricia, reigning world champions and the world’s number one ranked team, were the first to book their spot among the quarterfinalists. On Friday morning, they mastered their third win in Pool A, a shutout of Finnish qualifiers Taru Lahti-Liukkonen & Niina Ahtiainen, with the help of six serving aces from Duda towards the match high of 24 points. European champions Nina Brunner & Tanja Huberli of Switzerland delivered a victory over Betsi Flint & Julia Scoles of the United States in a direct duel for the second place in the final pool standings, as both teams advanced to the eighthfinals.

Second-seeded Nuss & Kloth completed their perfect sweep of Pool B without dropping a set. In their third pool match on Friday afternoon, they battled it out for a narrow win over fellow Americans Terese Cannon & Megan Kraft to top the final standings and knock their compatriots out of contention. Nuss was the best scorer of the match with 22 points, including two aces. Italy’s Marta Menegatti & Valentina Gottardi and Tokyo 2020 Olympic silver medallists Taliqua Clancy & Mariafe Artacho Del Solar of Australia engaged in a head-to-head clash for the runner-up position in the pool. After pushing the second set deep into overtime, the Italians emerged with a victory.

View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Beach Volleyball World (@beachvolleyballworld)

Sixth-seeded Carol & Barbara started their day with a upset of third-seeded Canadians Melissa Humana-Paredes & Brandie Wilkerson, went on to claim a victory over last year’s winners Katja Stam & Raisa Schoon of the Netherlands and topped the final Pool C standings without losing a single set along the way. Meanwhile, Melissa & Brandie mastered a shutout of Brazil’s Agatha Bednarczuk & Rebecca Cavalcanti, who had, on the other hand, managed a comeback win over the Dutch in the morning. So the three-way tie was broken by point ratios in favour of Stam & Schoon, who finished pool runners-up, and Melissa & Brandie, who took third place, leaving Agatha & Rebecca overboard.

Hughes & Cheng, seeded fifth, also cruised through their Pool D without dropping a set. On Friday, they mastered a sweep of their afternoon game against fourth-seeded Cinja Tillmann & Svenja Muller of Germany. In the evening, they got the job done with a narrow shutout of home favourites Lezana Placette & Alexia Richard. The other German team in the pool, Louisa Lippmann & Laura Ludwig, also defeated the French in straight sets, , earlier on Friday, so their evening clash with compatriots Tillmann & Muller proved to be a second-place decider. The all-German battle lasted three sets and ended in favour of Tillmann & Muller. Muller was the best scorer of the match with four kill blocks and three aces towards a 22-point total.