38-year-old Carol Solberg and 32-year-old Rebecca Cavalcanti made it to their first women’s FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship podium. The number two team in the FIVB World Ranking and number two seed in the tournament earned Adelaide 2025 bronze on Sunday afternoon in Australia, as they won the all-Brazilian third-place duel with the world’s number one, top-seeded Thamela Coradello & Victoria Lopes. It was Brazil’s 19^th medal in the history of the women’s World Championships.

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Carol & Solberg emerged victorious from a hard-fought straight-setter against their compatriots with a 2-0 (21-18, 22-20) win.

The first set went level until 9-9, when Thamela & Victoria broke away with four points in a row. Carol & Rebecca matched that to level at 13-13. Another four in a row gave them a quadruple set point, which Thamela & Victoria denied twice, but Rebecca converted the third opportunity to close the set with an off-the-block kill for 21-18. Thamela & Victoria were well in the lead for almost the entire second set, opening a gap as wide as four points. After 19-17, however, Carol & Rebecca mounted a three-point comeback to reach match point. They wasted it with a net-touch error, but immediately gained another one, which Carol converted with a perfectly placed ace for 22-20.

Despite making way more unforced errors than their opponents, Carol & Rebecca outplayed them in offense, which proved key to their success. Rebecca led the way with 17 kills in attack and two aces towards a match-high 19 points. Carol put away three kill blocks and an ace to finish with 15 points. Thamela signed off with 14 points, including two aces and a block, while Victoria added another 11.

“It’s been some amazing days here in Adelaide. We love Australia. It’s a great country,” Carol told VBTV after the game. “I’ve been playing for a long time and I really love being on the court. That’s what makes me always believe. I love this. I love what I feel when I am inside the court. I am so happy!”

The women’s gold medal match in Adelaide is coming up later on Sunday. The showdown between Latvia’s Tina Graudina & Anastasija Samoilova and USA’s Kristen Nuss & Taryn Brasher will serve off at 20:00 local time (09:30 UTC). The all-Swedish men’s final between Jacob Holting Nilsson & Elmer Andersson and David Ahman & Jonatan Hellvig will get underway one hour earlier, at 19:00 (08:30).

FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships: schedule and results

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