Cannon & Sponcil defeat higher seeds to win Rome 2022 pool

With the last round of matches in six of the women’s pools at the Beach Volleyball World Championships Rome 2022 completed on Monday, the pool stage of the tournament is now over with 28 teams set to advance to the Round of 32. This number includes all pool winners and pool runners-up, as well as the four third-placed teams with the best ranking records. The remaining four berths will be filled on Tuesday through a four-match lucky-loser round featuring the participation of the remaining eight duos ranked third.

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In Pool H, the first place was decided in a direct clash between two undefeated pairs. 17th-seeded Terese Cannon and Sarah Sponcil of USA managed to come back from a set down to hand Tokyo 2020 Olympic silver medallists Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho Del Solar of Australia, seeded eighth, their first loss of the tournament, 2-1 (16-21, 21-19, 15-6). Cuba’s Leila Martinez and Lidy Echeverria celebrated with a 2-0 (21-14, 21-16) win over Egypt’s Farida El Askalany and Doaa Elghobashy to take the third place in the pool and stay alive in the competition.

“It feels good! We were consistent all the time,” Sarah Sponcil told Volleyball World after the match with the Aussies. “They switched their strategy a little bit, but we talked and I think we did well in reacting to that. We have to stay consistent going forward and keep the pressure on the opponents. If we need to change things, we change them, and we just keep talking throughout the match.”

“We’ve watched our opponents on film and created a different game plan for every team that we play. Obviously, that’s a very good team, so we had to be very mindful about what we were doing, stick to our side, let them get their points and try to get ours,” Terese Cannon added. “We enjoy being here and we are taking it one game at a time.”

Seventh-seeded Brazilians Talita Antunes and Rebecca Silva topped the final standings in Pool G unbeaten after claiming their third victory on Monday, 2-1 (21-13, 18-21, 15-7) over USA’s Emily Day and Emily Stockman. That result also meant that Finland’s Taru Lahti-Liukkonen and Niina Ahtiainen would finish pool runners-up on a 2-1 win-loss record, following their 2-0 (21-17, 21-10) shutout of Dominican Republic’s Julibeth Payano and Jeneiry Rosario earlier in the day. At the end of the day, Day and Stockman also rejoiced with a direct ticket to the Round of 32 as one of the best third-placed teams.

“In the second set of our match, I lost concentration because the sand was too hot, but then my partner talked to me and said, ‘forget it; we have to play and we have to win this match to be first in the pool’, so I was able to re-focus again and we won,” said Talita after their game. “I know it is going to be hard, because there is a lot of good teams, but now it’s time to relax, enjoy a day of rest and start thinking about the next match.”

Defending world champions Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes achieved their third straight-set victory to top the table in Pool J. On Monday, the 10th-seeded Canadians managed a hard-fought 2-0 (25-23, 21-19) shutout of Chantal Laboureur and Sarah Schulz, leaving the Germans in third place, behind 34th-seeded Lezana Placette and Alexia Richard of France, who defeated Australia’s Alisha Stevens and Georgia Johnson by 2-0 (22-20, 21-12). Laboureur and Schulz had to wait till the end of the day to find out if they qualified or would have to play the lucky-loser round on Tuesday.

The world’s number three team, Svenja Muller and Cinja Tillmann of Germany, seeded 16th at the World Championships, delivered a 2-0 (24-22, 21-14) shutout of ninth-seeded Brazilians Taiana Lima and Hegeile Almeida to snatch the first place in Pool I with three wins in three matches. After Italy’s Reka Orsi Toth and Viktoria Orsi Toth were forced to withdraw from the tournament because of Viktoria’s injury sustained during Sunday’s match with the Germans, three teams finished on a 1-2 win-loss record. The second place went to the Brazilians on point ratio, followed by Thailand’s Worapeerachayakorn Kongphopsarutawadee and Taravadee Naraphornrapat, who also earned a spot in the Round of 32.

The direct duel for the first place in Pool K was won by Tanja Huberli and Nina Brunner. The 11th-seeded Swiss pair mastered a 2-0 (21-19, 21-5) victory over Germany’s Sandra Ittlinger and Isabel Schneider. Mexico’s Atenas Gutierrez and Maria Quintero won the battle for the third place in a 2-0 (21-17, 21-8) straight-setter against Mozambique’s Ana Sinaportar and Vanessa Muianga.

Germany’s Karla Borger and Julia Sude, seeded 13th, shut out 12th-seeded Italians Claudia Scampoli and Margherita Bianchin by 2-0 (21-19, 21-18) in the last women’s match of the day. This way they not only topped Pool L without dropping a single set, but also helped their compatriots Laboureur and Schulz move forward as the fourth third-placed team, pushing the Italians below the cut-off line. The second place in the pool went to Poland’s Kinga Wojtasik and Katarzyna Kociolek, who hammered out a 2-0 (21-8, 21-17) clean slate of Kenya’s Gaudencia Makokha and Brackcides Khadambi earlier in the day.

In the other six pools, the final standings were determined on Sunday. Top-seeded Katja Stam and Raisa Schoon of the Netherlands and Ana Gallay and Fernanda Pereyra of Argentina advanced from Pool A, Brazil’s Eduarda Santos Lisboa (Duda) and Ana Patricia Ramos and China’s Fan Wang and Xinyi Xia from Pool B, Switzerland’s Joana Heidrich and Anouk Verge-Depre and Latvia’s Anastasija Kravcenoka and Tina Graudina from Pool C, Canada’s Megan McNamara and Nicole McNamara and Brazil’s Barbara Seixas and Carol Solberg from Pool D, Canada’s Sophie Bukovec and Brandie Wilkerson and USA’s Betsi Flint and Kelly Cheng from Pool E, and USA’s Kelley Kolinske and Sara Hughes, Italy’s Marta Menegatti and Valentina Gottardi and Spain’s Belen Carro and Angela Lobato from Pool F.

FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships Rome 2022: Schedule and results

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