With the second leg of action completed in six of the 12 women’s pools at the Beach Volleyball World Championship Rome 2022 on Saturday, as many as nine teams have now booked their spots in the Round of 32.
Beach Volleyball World Champs 2022
Duda & Ana Patricia score hard-fought win to advance at Rome 2022
Nine women’s teams secure progress to the World Championship’s Round of 32
Published 06:43, 11 Jun 2022
These are Katja Stam and Raisa Schoon of the Netherlands and Ana Gallay and Fernanda Pereyra of Argentina from Pool A, Eduarda Santos Lisboa (Duda) and Ana Patricia Ramos of Brazil from Pool B, Anastasija Kravcenoka and Tina Graudina of Latvia and Joana Heidrich and Anouk Verge-Depre of Switzerland from Pool C, Barbara Seixas and Carol Solberg of Brazil and Megan McNamara and Nicole McNamara of Canada from Pool D, and Betsi Flint and Kelly Cheng of USA and Sophie Bukovec and Brandie Wilkerson of Canada from Pool E.
· Watch all matches at the Rome 2022 World Championships live on Volleyball.tv.
In one of the day’s few three-setters, second-seeded Duda and Ana Patricia battled it out with Austria’s Katharina Schutzenhofer and Lena Plesiutschnig, seeded 26th, for their second win in Pool B, which guaranteed them a top-two finish. In a game between two pairs that had won their first matches on Friday, the Brazilians lived up to their high seeding and celebrated with a 2-1 (21-13, 17-21, 15-11) victory.
“This tournament is very hard, with 48 teams all of whom are very strong. We need to stay focused all the time. It’s all about strategy,” Duda told Volleyball World after the game.
“We’ll try to continue this way. We are building our story. It’s hard, but we expect to keep moving forward,” Ana Patricia added.
In the other Pool B game of the day, China’s Fan Wang and Xinyi Xia produced a 2-0 (21-18, 21-18) shutout of Czechia’s Barbora Hermannova and Martina Williams to set up a direct clash with the Austrians for pool runners-up on Sunday.
Pool F is the only one of the six, where no one has secured a safe place among the best 32 of the tournament yet. Spain’s Belen Carro and Angela Lobato managed a 2-0 (21-17, 21-18) clean slate against Italy’s Marta Menegatti and Valentina Gottardi to mark their second win in the pool, but anything is still possible as the host-country duo and USA’s Kelley Kolinske and Sara Hughes are not far behind on a 1-1 win-loss record, after the sixth-seeded Americans claimed a 2-0 (21-13, 21-9) victory over Ecuador’s Ariana Vilela and Karelys Simisterra. The games between USA and Spain and between Ecuador and Italy on Sunday will determine the final standings in the pool.
In each of the remaining four pools, two teams registered their second wins on Saturday to stamp their tickets to the Round of 32 and leave two questions to be resolved in direct third-leg duels – who will win the winners’ match to top the pool undefeated, and who will score their first win of the World Championship to finish third in their pool and stay alive in the competition.
Kelly Cheng celebrates
Fifth-seeded Americans Flint and Cheng had to survive a tough challenge from Switzerland’s Esmee Bobner and Zoe Verge-Depre in Pool E. They were forced to climb back from a set down against the tough-serving opponents on the way to a 2-1 (17-21, 21-16, 15-12) win. It was not much easier for Bukovec and Brandie, especially in the second set against the home pair of Valentina Cali and 17-year-old Margherita Tega, but the Canadians managed to win it in straight sets, 2-0 (21-12, 22-20).
Top seeds Stam and Schoon hammered out a 2-0 (21-17, 21-15) shutout of Chile’s Maria Rivas Zapata and Chris Vorpahl, while Gallay and Pereyra had even fewer issues on the way to a 2-0 (21-11, 21-17) win over bottom-seeded Angel Williams and Ximena Nunez of Costa Rica in Pool A.
Raisa Schoon dives for the ball
Two emphatic victories marked the day in Pool C as well. Kravcenoka and Graudina defeated Japan’s Miki Ishii and Sayaka Mizoe by 2-0 (21-17, 21-11). Heidrich and Verge-Depre mastered a 2-0 (21-13, 21-7) win over Morocco’s Imane Zeroual and Mahassine Siad.
Deep into the overtime of the second set of their game against Erika Mongelos and Giuliana Poletti, Megan and Nicole emerged with a 2-0 (21-17, 24-22) victory over the Paraguayan duo in Pool D. Barbara and Carol were merciless against Colombia’s Diana Rios and Margarita Guzman on the way to a 2-0 (21-6, 21-7) blowout.
