Just like last week at the Joao Pessoa Elite, two home teams from Brazil will take on two American pairs in the women’s semifinals of the Rio de Janeiro Elite on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour. There is a slight change in the line-up, as this time the world’s number one team Thamela Coradello & Victoria Lopes made it among the best four of the tournament. They will take on last week’s winners Kelly Cheng & Molly Shaw of the United States. The number two team in the FIVB World Ranking Carol Solberg & Rebecca Cavalcanti will meet last week’s runners-up Terese Cannon & Megan Kraft.

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Top-seeded Thamela & Victoria continued their victorious quest in Rio with two more wins on Saturday, both resolved in the tie-breakers. In the round of 12, the Brazilians came back from a set down to beat fifth-seeded Germans Svenja Muller & Cinja Tillmann by 2-1 (16-21, 21-16, 15-13). They did it again against fourth-seeded Italians Valentina Gottardi & Reka Orsi Toth in the quarterfinals to celebrate a narrow 2-1 (16-21, 21-17, 16-14) win. Thamela led the team with a match-high 22 points, including three aces and two kill blocks. Victoria added another 15.

Eighth-seeded Cannon & Kraft and 11^th-seeded Carol & Rebecca already met in Saturday’s round of 12, with the Americans claiming a 2-1 (14-21, 21-17, 15-12) comeback victory. However, both pairs advanced to the quarterfinals to win their second matches on Saturday and head into another collision with each other in Sunday’s semifinals. Contributing 15 points each, Carol & Rebecca swept their encounter with Paris 2024 Olympic silver medalists Melissa Humana-Paredes & Brandie Wilkerson of Canada by an emphatic 2-0 (21-18, 21-15), with Carol putting up four kill blocks and Rebecca firing three aces. Cannon & Kraft, on the other hand, put an end to the victorious quest of their 14^th-seeded fellow Americans Julia Donlin & Lexy Denaburg in Rio with a 2-1 (19-21, 21-18, 15-9) turnaround, fueled with a team-high 24 points by Cannon, including four blocks, and another 13 points by Kraft.

Ninth-seeded Cheng & Shaw started their Saturday with an emphatic 2-0 (21-12, 21-15) upset of second-seeded Latvians Tina Graudina & Anastasija Samoilova in the round of 12 and went on to achieve a another upset in the quarterfinals – a 2-1 (19-21, 21-19, 15-13) comeback against third-seeded Anouk Verge-Depre & Zoe Verge-Depre of Switzerland. Cheng was above all in that match with 33 points, including five blocks. Shaw put away another eight points.

Thamela & Victoria and Shaw & Cheng will meet in the first women’s semifinal on Sunday at 11:00 local time (14:00 UTC). The second between Carol & Rebecca and Cannon & Kraft will serve off at 12:00 (15:00). The third place match is at 16:00 (19:00) and the final will follow at 18:00 (21:00).

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