As many as three women’s teams emerging from Wednesday’s qualifiers at the Nuvali Challenge on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour won their opening main draw matches and secured their participation in the elimination stages of the tournament. Two of them – Denmark’s Sofia Bisgaard & Cirkeline Hog and Romania’s Francesca Alupei & Beata Vaida – upset high-seeded American opponents, who will now have to battle for survival in Friday’s third-place matches in their pools.

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Seeded 30^th in the 32-team main draw, Bisgaard & Hog stunned third-seeded Morgan Chacon & Alaina Chacon with a tight 2-0 (29-25, 21-19) straight-setter in a Pool C opener. Bisgaard led the way with a match-high 18 points, including two kill blocks and an ace. On Friday, the Danish team will take on Thailand’s Tanarattha Udomchavee & Rumpaipruet Numwong for the first place in the pool and a direct passage to the eighthfinals, while the American duo will face Estonia’s Heleene Hollas & Liisa Remmelg for the third place to stay in contention and advance to the sixteenthfinals. The 19^th-seeded Thais upset the 14^th-seeded Estonians in a 2-1 (21-13, 15-21, 15-9) three-setter.

Romanian qualifiers Alupei & Vaida, seeded 24^th in the main draw bracket, achieved a 2-1 (21-16, 13-21, 15-12) victory over ninth-seeded Teegan Van Gunst & Piper Ferch of the United States in Pool H. Vaida impressed with five aces to finish with 13 points, while Alupei led the duo with 21 points, including four aces and three kill blocks. At least one qualifier team is sure to compete in the eighthfinals, as Alupei & Vaida will meet 25^th-seeded Anniina Parkkinen & Valma Prihti in the pool final. The Finnish qualifiers produced a 2-0 (21-11, 21-15) shutout of Filipino home favorites Mary Orillaneda & Genesa Eslapor.

Two more matches in the first leg of pool play were resolved after three-set battles. In Pool D, Thailand’s Taravadee Naraphornrapat & Worapeerachayakorn Kongphopsarutawadee beat Japan’s Sakura Ito & Mayu Sawame by 2-1 (21-19, 14-21, 15-12) and will play against fourth-seeded New Zealanders Shaunna Polley & Olivia MacDonald in the pool final, and in Pool B, Lithuania’s Ieva Dumbauskaite & Gerda Grudzinskaite came back from a set down to claim a 2-1 (15-21, 21-19, 15-8) victory over Japan’s Asami Shiba & Reika Murakami. The Lithuanians will now lock horns with second-seeded compatriots Monika Paulikiene & Aine Raupelyte for the first place in the pool.

Straight-set matches propelled their winners to the rest of the pool finals on Friday. In Pool A, top-seeded Taliqua Clancy & Jana Milutinovic of Australia will be challenged by Switzerland’s Annique Niederhauser & Menia Bentele. Fifth-seeded Australians Elizabeth Alchin & Georgia Johnson will face Japan’s Ren Matsumoto & Non Matsumoto for the top of Pool E. In Pool F, sixth-seeded Kylie Neuschaeferova & Martina Maixnerova of Czechia will cross swords with Lithuania’s Jekaterina Saule Kovalskaja & Daniele Kvedaraite, and in Pool G, the final will be between seventh-seeded Thainara Oliveira & Talita Simonetti of Brazil and Jasmine Fleming & Stefanie Fejes of Australia.

Women’s main draw action in the Philippines resumes on Friday at 09:00 local time (01:00 UTC).

Beach Pro Tour Nuvali Challenge: schedule and results

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