Elite16 - Rio de Janeiro, BRA - 2025

Donlin & Denaburg drop another stunner in Rio

Women’s round-of-12 line-up complete

Published 04:25, 27 Sept 2025

Tina/Anastasija (LAT) vs. Donlin/Denaburg (USA) - Pool B #62804621

Lexy Denaburg in action

USA’s Julia Donlin & Lexy Denaburg delivered another big upset at the Rio de Janeiro Elite on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour. After surprising the number two team in the FIVB World Ranking, Brazil’s Carol Solberg & Rebecca Cavalcanti, on Thursday, they went on to top their pool after another three-set stunner against the world’s number three team Tina Graudina & Anastasija Samoilova of Latvia on Friday.

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In the Pool B final, 14^th-seeded Donlin & Denaburg celebrated a 2-1 (21-17, 11-21, 15-13) victory over third-seeded Tina & Anastasija to book a direct ticket to Saturday’s round of 12, where they are going to take on French Olympians Clemence Vieira & Aline Chamereau.

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Both Tina & Anastasija and Carol & Rebecca managed to bounce back and also found their way into the round of 12. The Latvians put together a 2-0 (21-18, 21-16) sweep of their round-of-18 game against Paraguayan Olympians Giuliana Poletti Corrales & Michelle Valiente and will meet last week’s Joao Pessoa Elite winners Kelly Cheng & Molly Shaw of USA, who topped Pool D after a 2-1 (21-9, 12-21, 15-8) upset of fourth-seeded Italians Valentina Gottardi & Reka Orsi Toth.

The Brazilian pair first beat Katja Stam & Raisa Schoon of the Netherlands for the third place in their pool and then came back from a set down to claim a hard-fought 2-1 (16-21, 21-14, 15-10) round-of-18 win over American qualifiers Corinne Quiggle & Chloe Loreen. Their next opponents, Joao Pessoa silver medalists Terese Cannon & Megan Kraft of USA, also topped their Pool E after a 2-1 (15-21, 23-21, 18-16) upset of fifth-seeded Germans Svenja Muller & Cinja Tillmann.

The world’s number one team, top-seeded Brazilians Thamela Coradello & Victoria Lopes did not allow any surprises and won Pool A with a 2-0 (21-17, 21-19) shutout of Austria’s Dorina Klinger & Ronja Klinger. They will now be challenged by Muller & Tillmann, who recovered with a round-of-18 shutout of Brazilian qualifiers Andressa Cavalcanti & Taina Bigi.

Third-seeded Anouk Verge-Depre & Zoe Verge-Depre of Switzerland produced a 2-0 (21-17, 21-19) win over Vieira & Chamereau in the Pool C final and await Gottardi & Orsi Toth, who bounced back with a three-set comeback against Brazilian qualifiers Thainara Feitosa de Oliveira & Talita Simonetti.

Sixth-seeded Canadians Melissa Humana-Paredes & Brandie Wilkerson beat Quiggle & Loreen by 2-0 (21-19, 21-17) for the first place in Pool F and will next face the Klingers for a spot in the quarterfinals.