Spain’s Daniela Alvarez & Tania Moreno were one of the teams that advanced to Saturday’s quarterfinals at the Yucatan Challenge on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour. In a head-to-head eighthfinal clash between the top two seeds in the main draw, they knocked bracket leaders Carol Solberg & Rebecca Cavalcanti out of contention in Puerto Progreso.
Beach Pro Tour
Alvarez & Moreno win clash of top seeds in Yucatan
Women’s quarterfinals all set at the Challenge event in Mexico
Published 07:19, 22 Mar 2025
Spain’s Tania Moren
- Watch the Yucatan Challenge on VBTV.
Top-seeded Carol & Rebecca bounced back from Thursday’s loss of the Pool A final with a nerve-wracking 2-0 (24-22, 30-28) victory in their sixteenthfinal match against American qualifiers Madison Shields & Xolani Hodel. In the eighthfinals, however, second-seeded Alvarez & Moreno put an end to the Brazilian pair’s debut Beach Pro Tour campaign with a hard-fought 2-1 (21-15, 17-21, 15-11) win to advance to the quarterfinals. Moreno fired five aces to top the scorers’ chart of the match with a total of 25 points. The young Spanish Olympians will next meet ninth-seeded Tanja Huberli & Leona Kernen of Switzerland, who also won their eighthfinal with a tie-breaker, 2-1 (21-17, 13-21, 15-9) over Madelyne Anderson & Brook Bauer of the United States.
Another American pair, Devon Newberry & Jaden Whitmarsh, were the only team from Wednesday’s qualifiers to stay alive in the competition for the quarterfinals. Seeded 31st in the main draw, they started the knockout stage of the tournament with a 2-1 (21-8, 14-21, 15-11) upset of Paraguayan Olympians Giuliana Poletti & Michelle Valiente, and went on to hammer out a 2-0 (21-12, 21-16) sweep of their eighthfinal match with seventh-seeded Andressa Cavalcanti & Taina Bigi of Brazil. In a duel for a spot in the semifinals, Newberry & Whitmarsh will take on 16th-seeded Maryna Hladun & Tetiana Lazarenko of Ukraine, who knocked out Australia’s Taliqua Clancy & Jana Milutinovic with a 2-0 (22-20, 21-12) eighthfinal win.
Another two American pairs made their way to the quarterfinals in Mexico. 12th-seeded Kimberly Hildreth & Teegan Van Gunst mastered a 2-0 (21-11, 21-16) shutout of host nation’s representatives Susana Torres & Atenas Gutierrez for an opportunity to face third-seeded Dorina Klinger & Ronja Klinger of Austria in a fight for the semis. The Austrian sisters, on the other hand, battled it out for a 2-1 (21-18, 8-21, 15-10) victory over Czechia’s Marketa Svozilova & Marie-Sara Stochlova.
The other quarterfinal will be between USA’s Toni Rodriguez & Kylie Kuyava-De Berg and Italy’s Valentina Gottardi & Claudia Scampoli. They both knocked out compatriots in their eighthfinal matches. 11th-seeded Gottardi & Scampoli took out Reka Orsi Toth & Giada Bianchi in straight sets, 2-0 (21-12, 21-16), while sixth-seeded Toni & DeBerg achieved a 2-1 (21-16, 16-21, 15-10) victory over Julia Scoles & Lexy Denaburg. Earlier on Friday, Toni & DeBerg also had a sixteenthfinal match to play, in which they put together a 2-0 (21-18, 21-10) shutout of French Olympians Lezana Placette & Alexia Richard.
The quarterfinals will get underway at 11:00 local time (17:00 UTC) on Saturday. The women’s semifinals are also scheduled for later in the day.
