Brazilian teams grabbed half of the eight main draw vacancies available through Wednesday’s women’s qualifications at the Joao Pessoa Elite on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour. Three of them upset higher seeds in the bracket to delight the home fans. Two pairs from the United States, one from Lithuania and one from France also pushed through to the 24-team main draw, serving off on Thursday morning.

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In the most interesting match of the 16-team single qualification round, 16^th-seeded Flavia Moura Santos Cezar & Barbara De Sousa Alves Ferreira of Brazil achieved the only tie-breaker victory of the day, a hard-fought 2-1 (20-22, 21-17, 15-13) upset of qualification bracket leaders Xolani Hodel & Kylie Kuyava-De Berg of the United States. Barbara led the team with 20 points, including two aces. Flavia Moura chipped in with another 19, while DeBerg impressed with five kill blocks towards a match-high 27 points. Hodel also finished with 19.

14^th-seeded Brazilians Verena Figueira de Oliveira & Kyce Mikaele Martins Silva also delivered a major upset, a convincing 2-0 (21-13, 21-17) shutout of third-seeded Wies Bekhuis & Emi van Driel of the Netherlands.

Ninth-seeded Carol Horta & Elize Maia were the third Brazilian team to defeat a higher-ranked opponent on Wednesday. They hammered out a 2-0 (21-14, 21-16) sweep of their qualification match against eighth-seeded Shaunna Polley & Olivia MacDonald of New Zealand.

Finally, sixth-seeded Brazilian wild cards Thainara Mylena Feitosa de Oliveira & Talita Calixto Simonetti may not have upset a higher seed, but achieved a prestigious 2-0 (21-19, 21-14) victory over Dutch Olympians Katja Stam & Raisa Schoon upon Stam’s first Beach World Tour appearance since the Doha Finals in December, after recovering from an injury.

Second-seeded Americans Corinne Quiggle & Chloe Loreen did not allow a Brazilian upset and took out 15^th-seeded Andressa Cavalcanti & Taina Bigi in straight sets, 2-0 (21-17, 21-15).

Neither did fourth-seeded Lithuanian Olympians Monika Paulikiene & Aine Raupelyte, who beat Brazil’s Emanuely Pereira Cardoso & Quemile Vieira de Souza, seeded 13^th, by 2-0 (21-15, 21-17).

Seventh-seeded Hailey Harward & Molly Phillips were the other team from the USA that made it successfully through the qualifiers. They claimed a 2-0 (21-19, 21-15) win over Estonia’s Heleene Hollas & Liisa Remmelg.

French Olympians Lezana Placette & Alexia Richard also earned a spot in Thursday’s main draw action. They celebrated a 2-0 (21-10, 21-16) victory over Norway’s Nina Pavlova & Sunniva Helland-Hansen.

Thursday’s women’s main draw action is set to serve off at 09:00 local time (12:00 UTC).

VW Beach Pro Tour Joao Pessoa Elite: women’s main draw list
VW Beach Pro Tour Joao Pessoa Elite: match schedule

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