Two Lithuanian pairs that came through from Thursday’s qualifications at the Nuvali Challenge on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour started their main draw campaigns in the Philippines on Friday with victories, and even met one another in the Pool F winners match. Ieva Dumbauskaite & Ieva Vasiliauskaite won the all-Lithuanian duel with Daniele Kvedaraite & Jekaterina Kovalskaja and advanced straight to the second elimination round together with the other five pool winners – Germany’s Sandra Ittlinger & Kim Van de Velde, USA’s Molly Shaw & Toni Rodriguez, Spain’s Belen Carro & Sofia Gonzalez, Austria’s Katharina Schutzenhofer & Lena Plesiutschnig and USA’s Hailey Harward & Kylie Kuyava-De Berg. The teams that finished second or third in their pools progressed to the first knockout round to be played on Saturday morning, with serve-off scheduled at 08:00 local time (00:00 UTC).

• Watch the Nuvali Challenge on VBTV.

Arriving from the qualifications, Dumbauskaite & Vasiliauskaite and Kvedaraite & Kovalskaja were seeded 19^th and 18^th, respectively, in the main draw. They swept their opening Pool F matches and went face to face for the first place in the pool. Dumbauskaite & Vasiliauskaite celebrated a 2-0 (21-18, 21-14) victory and a ticket to the round of 12, while Kvedaraite & Kovalskaja, along with Finland’s Taru Lahti-Liukkonen & Niina Ahtiainen, who finished third in the pool, progressed to the round of 18.

High seeds suffered upsets in Pool D as well. 16^th-seeded Schutzenhofer & Plesiutschnig and Polish qualifiers Malgorzata Ciezkowska & Urszula Lunio shut out France’s Lezana Placette & Alexia Richard and Australia’s Taliqua Clancy & Georgia Johnson, respectively, to meet in the pool final, where the Austrians claimed a 2-0 (21-17, 21-18) win. Olympic medallist Clancy and her Australian partner finish third in the pool and knocked the French Olympians out of contention.

Both finalists of last week’s Chennai Challenge in India started the Nuvali Challenge in the same pool, but while silver medallists Harward & DeBerg topped the final standings, fifth-seeded gold medallists Maryna Hladun & Tetiana Lazarenko of Ukraine suffered two upsets and got eliminated. In the Pool E final, the Americans mastered a 2-0 (21-17, 21-14) shutout of Dutch qualifiers Noa Sonneville & Brecht Piersma, while Germany’s Anna-Lena Grune & Lea Sophie Kunst handed the Ukrainians the last blow in the third-place match.

In the Pool C final, 15^th-seeded Carro & Gonzalez produced a 2-1 (14-21, 21-17, 16-14) upset of third-seeded Brazilians Andressa Cavalcanti & Taina Bigi, while the third place went to French Olympians Aline Chamereau & Clemence Vieira.

Second-seeded Shaw & Toni, who arrived from the qualifiers, delivered a 2-0 (21-19, 21-9) shutout of Polish qualifiers Aleksandra Wachowicz & Julia Radelczuk in the Pool B winners match. Madelyne Anderson & Brook Bauer survived an all-American duel for the third place with Alaina Chacon & Molly Phillips.

Top-seeded Ittlinger & Van de Velde expectedly topped Pool A, after a 2-0 (21-18, 21-16) sweep of the final against Thailand’s Taravadee Naraphornrapat & Woranatchayakorn Phirachayakrailert. American qualifiers Piper Ferch & Madison Shields also progressed from the pool as the third-placed team.

VW Beach Pro Tour Nuvali Challenge: schedule and results

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