The last eight eighthfinalists emerged and the last four eighthfinal match-ups took shape at the women’s FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship in Adelaide on Wednesday. In the most interesting of Thursday’s battles for the quarterfinal spots, USA’s Kristen Nuss & Taryn Brasher will take on Katja Stam & Raisa Schoon of the Netherlands.

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In the last of Wednesday’s sixteenthfinals, third-seeded Nuss & Brasher took out Italy’s Claudia Scampoli & Giada Bianchi in straight sets, 2-0 (21-14, 21-19). Nuss led the winners with two aces and 14 kills in attack, while Scampoli emerged as the best scorer of the match with 17 points, all in swings. 34^th-seeded Stam & Schoon also got their job done in straight sets, 2-0 (21-15, 21-13) against China’s Yan Xu & Xia Xinyi. Stam impressed with seven kill blocks and an ace towards a match-high 23 points.

Paris 2024 Olympians Nuss & Brasher are the bronze medalists of the previous edition of the World Championship in Mexico. They are currently the number six team in the FIVB World Ranking, but they have been up in number two for many weeks in the past. Stam & Schoon, on the other hand, competed at two Olympics and were the world’s number one team for several weeks back in 2022. Recently, Stam came back from a long injury-prompted absence, which was the reason for their relatively low ranking (number 55) and low seeding at this World Championship. The two teams have met six times on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour so far and the Americans have won four of these encounters, including the most recent one at last December’s Doha Finals.

Another US pair, that of Molly Shaw and defending world champion Kelly Cheng, seeded seventh, also booked their spot in the eighthfinals with a narrow 2-0 (21-19, 21-19) win over Austria’s Dorina Klinger & Ronja Klinger. Cheng and Dorina Klinger shared the top scorer honors with 20 points each. In the eighthfinals, Shaw & Cheng will face the sensational Kylie Neuschaeferova & Martina Maixnerova, the 46^th-seeded Czechs, who prevented an all-American eighthfinal clash by shocking fourth-seeded Terese Cannon & Megan Kraft with an emphatic 2-0 (21-12, 21-14) sweep in Wednesday’s opening match. The Czechs outplayed the Americans mostly from the serving line, with a total of 10 aces. Maixnerova authored an impressive seven of those, while Kylie raised all five of the team’s kill blocks, as they finished with a total of 17 points apiece.

In one of the most interesting sixteenthfinals on Wednesday, Germany’s Sandra Ittlinger & Anna-Lena Grune, seeded 21^st, achieved a 2-1 (16-21, 21-18, 15-11) comeback victory over Czechia’s Marketa Svozilova & Marie-Sara Stochlova, with a match-high 25 points from Ittlinger, including three aces and a kill block. On Thursday, the German duo will challenge the number two team in the world, second-seeded Carol Solberg & Rebecca Cavalcanti of Brazil, who mastered a 2-0 (21-14, 21-18) sweep of their sixteenthfinal against Australia’s Jasmine Fleming & Stefanie Fejes. Carol put up four kill blocks towards a team-high 19 points. Fleming topped the match chart with 20.

24^th-seeded Ukrainians Tetiana Lazarenko & Daria Romaniuk contributed 17 points each to book their ticket to the eighthfinals with a tight 2-0 (21-19, 22-20) win over Japan’s Asami Shiba & Reika Murakami. Reika was the best scorer of the match with 23 points, including four aces. Lazarenko & Romaniuk will face the world’s number one team, top-seeded Thamela Coradello & Victoria Lopes of Brazil, who survived a nail-biting tie-breaker to overcome the resistance of France’s Lezana Placette & Alexia Richard in a 2-1 (21-17, 15-21, 19-17) three-setter earlier on Wednesday. Victoria put away a remarkable seven aces, Thamela led the team with two aces, three kill blocks and 19 spike points, while Richard produced a match-high 25 points.

All eight women’s eighthfinals will be played on Thursday, with the first one serving off at 13:30 local time (03:00 UTC).

FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships: schedule and results

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