A much anticipated clash between ninth-seeded Tina Graudina & Anastasija Samoilova of Latvia and fourth-seeded Melissa Humana-Paredes & Brandie Wilkerson of Canada decorated the last game of the pool stage in the women’s Olympic beach volleyball tournament on Saturday. The Latvians showed a great level on the court and produced a 2-0 (21-14, 22-20) victory to finish second in Pool D on a 2-1 win-loss record and progress to the eighthfinals. This result left the Canadian pair third in the pool and in the so-called “lucky-loser” sixteenthfinal round, just short of also making it to the last 16 as one of the two best-ranked third-placed teams.
Beach Volleyball Olympic Games Paris 2024
Tina & Anastasija shut out Melissa & Brandie for a spot in the eighthfinals
Women’s pool stage now over, time for the “lucky-loser” playoffs!
Published 04:43, 03 Aug 2024
Anastasija in defence
“It was a very nice game. We played very well,” Anastasija told the FIVB after the match. “We knew that there would be a lot of pressure on them and also on us in such a life-or-death game. Nobody wants to play the ‘lucky-loser’ round and everybody wants to get a better opponent for the playoffs. And we also wanted to just show our level of the game. And it was amazing!”
“Our game has gone upwards and I think that’s the best-case scenario, to always improve as the tournament goes on, because everybody is doing good statistics and scouting, so you need to ‘improve’ your errors. This was close to very high level for sure, but for the next opponents we will probably adapt a different style,” added Tina, who topped the scorers’ chart of the match with 22 points, including six kill blocks.
Tina on the block
Earlier on Saturday, 16th-seeded Esmee Bobner & Zoe Verge-Depre of Switzerland secured the first place in Pool D with a hard-fought 2-1 (23-21, 18-21, 15-12) victory over 21st-seeded Giuliana Poletti & Michelle Valiente, finishing the pool stage undefeated and knocking the Paraguayan hopefuls out of contention. Zoe fired five aces towards a 21-point tally. Esmee finished with 20 points, while Poletti topped the scorers’ chart of the match with 23.
Seventh-seeded Tanja Huberli & Nina Brunner of Switzerland topped the final pool standings in Pool F after scoring their third victory in Paris 2024. Huberli & Brunner were merciless in their game against sixth-seeded Lezana Placette & Alexia Richard of France on Saturday and hammered out a convincing 2-0 (21-11, 21-8) shutout that left the French pair in third place and in the “lucky-loser” round. Brunner fired six aces towards her 17-point match high, while Huberli raised six kill blocks and put away four aces to finish with 16 points.
The pairing of distinguished German athletes Laura Ludwig & Louisa Lippmann failed to win a set at Paris 2024 and will not continue their Olympic journey. In their last match at the Eiffel Tower Stadium, the 19th-seeded duo suffered their third consecutive straight-set defeat, this time at the hands of 18th-seeded Spanish hopefuls Daniela Alvarez & Tania Moreno, who secured their spot in the eighthfinals with a 2-0 (21-16, 21-19) sweep, their second win in the pool. Ludwig put away a match-high 17 points, while Alvarez and Moreno finished with 16 and 14, respectively.
In Friday’s last two women’s matches, the Pools C and E winners were decided in head-to-head clashes between unbeaten teams, who had already qualified to the eighthfinals.
First, fifth-seeded Carol Solberg & Barbara Seixas of Brazil managed a nail-biting 2-1 (16-21, 21-17, 19-17) comeback against eighth-seeded Katja Stam & Raisa Schoon of the Netherlands to top the final standings in Pool E. The Dutch themselves managed to come back from a 14-11 deficit in the tie-breaker to push it to overtime, but in the end the Brazilians kept their cool, saved two opponent match points, and celebrated the victory. Carol put away five kill blocks and three aces to finish with 23 points. Barbara added another 22, while Stam produced the match high of 26.
In the evening session, reigning world champions Sara Hughes & Kelly Cheng of the United States, seeded third, finished first in Pool C after delivering a 2-0 (21-18, 21-18) shutout of 10th-seeded Germans Svenja Muller & Cinja Tillmann. Cheng and Muller shared the top scorer honours with 20 points each.
Among the six third-placed teams, 11th-seeded Xue Chen & Xia Xinyi of China and 12th-seeded Valentina Gottardi & Marta Menegatti of Italy had the best records and moved on directly to the eighthfinals. In the two sixteenthfinal match-ups on Saturday evening, 20th-seeded Akiko Hasegawa & Miki Ishii of Japan will take on home favourites Placette & Richard at 21:00 local time (19:00 UTC), and 22nd-seeded Barbora Hermannova & Marie-Sara Stochlova of Czechia will challenge Melissa & Brandie at 22:00 (20:00).
