Spain’s Vergara & Gonzalez on to Nayarit quarterfinals after fourth tie-breaker in Mexico

Spain’s Ana Vergara & Sofia Gonzalez have played four matches at the Nayarit Challenge on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour so far and had to grind through tie-breakers in all four of them. On Friday, they were successful in both the sixteenthfinals and the eighthfinals to push through to the women’s quarterfinals on Saturday.

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The 24-year-old Spaniards, seeded 14^th in the 32-team main draw, started their day in Mexico with a 2-1 (14-21, 21-19, 15-12) comeback victory in their first elimination round match against Kamila Tan & Madison Shields of the United States in spite of the nine aces the Americans fired at them. Vergara & Gonzalez followed up with another three-set win – 2-1 (21-15, 28-30, 15-8) over Germany’s Chenoa Christ & Sophia Neuss – with four aces and five kill blocks from Vergara towards her match-high 26-point tally. In Saturday’s quarterfinals, the Spanish pair will challenge fourth-seeded Yan Xu & Xia Xinyi, who put together a 2-0 (21-18, 21-18) sweep of the all-Chinese eighthfinal against Jiang Kaiyue & Dong Jie, also overcoming as many as eight aces from the opponents.

Germany’s Mareet Maidhof & Tabea Schwarz became the lowest seeded team to progress to the quarterfinals. Playing under number 25 in the main draw bracket, they followed up on their Pool H victory with a 2-0 (21-19, 21-16) shutout of Estonia’s Heleene Hollas & Liisa Remmelg in the eighthfinals. The Germans will now take on third-seeded Verena Figueira & Thainara Feitosa of Brazil, who had a tough encounter with 20^th-seeded Danes Sofia Bisgaard & Cirkeline Hog in the eighthfinals, which they won by 2-1 (21-23, 24-22, 15-11) after an hour and four minutes of play time.

Germany is the only country with two duos in the quarterfinals. Bracket leaders Lea Kunst & Melanie Paul also advanced to the last eight, following a three-set battle – 2-1 (21-15, 21-23, 15-9) against USA’s Natalie Myszkowski & Carly Kan. Kunst led the way with eight kill blocks and two aces towards a match-high 27 points. 23^rd-seeded Poles Natalia Okla & Urszula Lunio will be Kunst & Paul’s next obstacle in Nayarit. Okla & Lunio cruised through the first two knockout rounds with two straight-set victories – 2-0 (21-16, 21-15) over sixth-seeded Emi van Driel & Mila Konink of the Netherlands in the sixteenthfinals and 2-0 (21-17, 21-12) over Paraguayan Olympians Michelle Valiente & Giuliana Poletti Corrales in the eighthfinals.

Second-seeded Asami Shiba & Reika Murakami of Japan were also forced to a tie-breaker in their eighthfinal match. They managed a 2-1 (13-21, 21-18, 15-10) comeback win over 24^th-seeded Rika Dieckmann & Paula Schurholz of Germany and will meet USA’s Madelyne Anderson & Alaina Chacon. The 16^th-seeded Americans hammered out a 2-0 (21-12, 21-19) shutout of Norway’s Sunniva Helland-Hansen & Nina Pavlova in the first knockout round and a 2-0 (21-13, 21-18) upset of seventh-seeded Lithuanian Olympians Monika Paulikiene & Aine Raupelyte in the second.

Both the quarterfinals and the semifinals of the women’s tournament in Nayarit will be played on Saturday. The first quarterfinals will serve off at 14:00 local time (20:00 UTC).

Beach Pro Tour Nayarit Challenge: schedule and results

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