Japan’s Miharu Kashihara & Izumi Ishihara had a tough first day at the Nuvali Challenge on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour, but they persevered through two qualification matches to advance to the women’s main draw. Two teams from Denmark and one each from Canada, Finland, Germany, Romania and USA were also successful in Wednesday’s qualifiers and progressed to Thursday’s main draw in the Philippines.

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The first round of qualifiers featured only one game, but what a game it was! 17^th-seeded Miharu & Ishihara battled back from a set down to achieve a 2-1 (18-21, 21-13, 15-11) victory over 16^th-seeded Claire Crossfield & Anna Prokofieva of Canada. Miharu led the way with 22 points, including two aces. Ishihara also fired two aces to finish with 16 points. The Japanese pair went on to hammer out a 2-0 (21-17, 21-18) upset of qualification bracket leaders Nina Pavlova & Sunniva Helland-Hansen of Norway in the second-round decider. Miharu was once again the best scorer of the match, with 17 points to her name, including two aces. Ishihara raised one kill block and put away an ace towards a 16-point tally. Miharu & Ishihara were seeded 32^nd in the 32-team main draw and will take on top-seeded Australians Taliqua Clancy & Jana Milutinovic in their first game on Thursday.

The other seven teams that managed to push through the qualifiers into the women’s main draw needed to play only one game each on Wednesday.

In the only three-setter of the second round, Denmark’s Clara Windeleff & Astrid Mellmolle, seeded 12^th, upset fifth-seeded Riko Tsujimura & Takemi Nishibori of Japan. The European pair came back from an extended first set loss to mount a 2-1 (20-22, 21-19, 15-12) victory. Their Danish compatriots, 11^th-seeded Sofia Bisgaard & Cirkeline Hog, took out sixth-seeded Finns Sara Sinisalo & Anniina Muukka in straight sets, 2-0 (21-17, 21-17), and also advanced to the main draw.

No other seeding upsets were registered in the qualifiers. Eighth-seeded Amanda Harnett & Devin Corah of Canada disappointed the Filipino fans with a 2-0 (21-15, 21-16) win over home pair Alexa Polidario & Jenny Gaviola. Seventh-seeded Americans Avery Poppinga & Kamila Tan delivered a 2-0 (21-16, 21-7) shutout of Japan’s Keiko Urata & Minami Asano. Anniina Parkkinen & Valma Vilhelmiina Prihti of Finland, seeded fourth, produced a 2-0 (21-11, 21-13) sweep of their game against Japan’s Harumi Sakai & Shion Tsubouchi. Romania’s Francesca Alupei & Beata Vaida, seeded third, mastered a 2-0 (21-14, 21-12) win over Austria’s Anna Hammarberg & Michaela Hollaus, while second-seeded Chenoa Christ & Tabea Schwarz of Germany faced few issues on the way to an emphatic 2-0 (21-10, 21-12) victory over Japan’s Chisato Sanada & Ai Shigechika.

Women’s main draw action at the Nuvali Challenge serves off at 12:30 local time (04:30 UTC) on Thursday.

Beach Pro Tour Nuvali Challenge: women’s main draw list
Beach Pro Tour Nuvali Challenge: schedule and results

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