Beach Pro Tour

American and Canadian qualifiers march on in Ostrava main draw

Cannon & Sponcil and Melissa & Brandie first to score two wins in pool play

Published 04:10, 01 Jun 2023

Sarah Sponcil in reception

On Wednesday, Terese Cannon & Sarah Sponcil were the first team to win two matches and qualify for the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Ostrava Elite16 women’s main draw. On Thursday, the American qualifiers were the first team to qualify for the direct knockouts, after scoring two victories in the main draw, upsetting higher-seeded opponents in both. Canadian qualifiers Melissa Humana-Paredes & Brandie Wilkerson followed suit and also swept both their games on Thursday.

· Watch all matches at the Beach Pro Tour Ostrava Elite16 event live on VBTV.

Opening court 2 for action in the early morning, Cannon & Sponcil, seeded bottom 16^th, engaged in a Pool A battle with fellow Americans Kristen Nuss & Taryn Kloth and battled their way to a victory with a 23-point contribution from Sponcil. Meanwhile, at centre court, reigning European champions Anastasija Samoilova & Tina Graudina of Latvia delivered a upset of reigning world champions Eduarda Santos Lisboa (Duda) & Ana Patricia Ramos of Brazil, the number one team in the FIVB World Ranking and the top seeds of the tournament.

In the second leg of pool play, Cannon & Sponcil repeated their result from the first match and managed a shutout of Anastasija & Tina. At the same time, Duda & Ana Patricia bounced back from their defeat in the morning and from losing the first set to Nuss & Kloth and saved their chances of advancing to the quarterfinals with a comeback victory. Ana Patricia hammered out as many as 33 points against 27 from Kloth.

Duda trying to overcome Tina’s block

In Pool D, 13^th-seeded Melissa & Brandie started their day with a shutout of fifth-seeded Nina Brunner & Tanja Huberli of Switzerland. Brandie was the best scorer of the match with 20 points, including three aces and three blocks. In the afternoon, the Canadians disappointed the home crowd with a sweep of their game against Czechia’s Barbora Hermannova & Marie-Sara Stochlova to secure a top-two finish in the pool after the last leg on Friday.

Both the Czechs and the Swiss spoiled Agatha Bednarczuk’s Beach Pro Tour debut after her return from maternity leave by shutting out her fourth-seeded pairing with Rebecca Cavalcanti. In the morning, Hermannova & Stochlova outplayed the Brazilians by . In the afternoon, so did Brunner & Huberli by . The Czechs and the Swiss will lock horns on Friday in a direct battle for a sure spot in the direct eliminations.

Brandie in reception

Only one leg of matches were played in Pool B on Thursday, but both games were pushed to third-set deciders. At centre court, last year’s Ostrava winners Cinja Tillmann & Svenja Muller of Germany produced a upset of the world’s fourth-ranked team Katja Stam & Raisa Schoon of the Netherlands, seeded second in the main draw bracket. Tillmann contributed 23 points, including two aces, while Muller impressed with five kill blocks towards a 20-point tally. Similarly, Tokyo 2020 Olympic bronze medallists Anouk Verge-Depre & Joana Mader put away 23 and 20 points, respectively, towards a victory over Italian qualifiers Marta Menegatti & Valentina Gottardi. Verge-Depre piled up five aces, while Mader raised five stuffs in the match.

Straight-set matches marked the first leg in Pool C. USA’s Sara Hughes & Kelly Cheng found no match in the world’s number three team Barbara Seixas & Carol Solberg of Brazil, who had to make their way to the main draw through Wednesday’s qualifiers. The Americans dominated the game to master a sweep with a 21-point match high from Cheng. At the same time, at centre court, Tokyo 2020 Olympic silver medallists Taliqua Clancy & Mariafe Artacho Del Solar of Australia, seeded third, hammered out a shutout of Americans Betsi Flint & Julia Scoles.