Canada’s Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes and Switzerland’s Anouk Verge-Depre and Joana Heidrich were the first teams to advance to the last 16 of the women’s Olympic beach volleyball tournament at Tokyo 2020. Also on Monday at Shiokaze Park, American first-time Olympians Kelly Claes and Sarah Sponcil made a victorious debut.
Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 - Beach Volleyball
First Olympic eighth finalists emerge
And Team Slaes edge Graudina & Kravcenoka in much anticipated battle of the rookies
Published 01:28, 26 Jul 2021
Two matches in Pool D were played on Monday morning. The much anticipated battle of the Olympic rookies between USA’s Kelly Claes and Sarah Sponcil and Latvia’s Tina Graudina and Anastasija Kravcenoka delivered all it was expected to, and to the delight of all viewers went to three sets. With the Americans well in control of the first set and the Latvians dominating the second, the lead went back and forth several times during the tie-breaker. In the money time, after 11-9 Graudina and Kravcenoka’s way, Claes and Sponcil made a spectacular six-point home run to celebrate a 2-1 (21-13, 16-21, 15-11) victory.
Sarah Sponcil (USA)
“We knew it was going to be an exciting match. We lost to them the last two times, so we had lots of revengeful thoughts going into the match. We have similar play styles and it really went back and forth. They were beating us on defence,” Sarah Sponcil told Volleyball World after the game. “And then it came down to that third set and I think we did a good job just taking one point at a time and being really present. It came down to some really good blocks by Kell and I couldn’t be more proud of her. It was just so exciting – the first match out there at the Olympics going to three and winning it!”
“The first set didn't go our way at all. Part of it might have been just the nervousness going into our first Olympic game,” Tina Graudina commented. “But then in the second set, we just found our game, we did what we were supposed to do, what our coach told us to do... In the third set we also played really well. Unfortunately, it was literally the last three or four points that decided the whole result of the game.”
Right after that, Brazil’s Ana Patricia Ramos and Rebecca Cavalcanti won the second Pool D match. They lived up to their status as heavy favourites against Kenya’s Gaudencia Makokha and Brackcides Khadambi and mastered a 2-0 (21-15, 21-9) victory.
Sarah Pavan kill-blocks a shot by Karla Borger
The second leg of the pool stage started with Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes’s straight-set win over Julia Sude and Karla Borger. In a Pool A fixture, the Canadians produced a 2-0 (21-17, 21-14) shutout of their German opponents. Later in the day, Switzerland’s Anouk Verge-Depre and Joana Heidrich also managed to snatch a 2-0 (22-20, 21-18) victory over the Netherlands’ Katja Stam and Raisa Schoon, after winning set one on a seven-point run from 15-20.
With the pairs from Canada and Switzerland leading the pool standings on a 2-0 win-loss record each, they became the first teams to secure their spots in the Round of 16, while the duos from Germany and Japan will have to battle it out with each other for the third place in the final pool standings.
“At the end of set one, Anouk served well and we made a good block-defence system to win it. I am really happy and proud that we advanced,” Joana Heidrich told Volleyball World.
“I think it was a really tough game. We gave it our all. We were behind in the first set, but we just fought for every single point, stuck together on the court and that was the key to win the match,” said Anouk Verge-Depre.
Maggie Kozuch spikes past Miki Ishii’s block
Margareta Kozuch and Rio 2016 champion Laura Ludwig claimed their first victory in Pool F. The German pair outplayed the Japanese duo of Miki Ishii and Megumi Murakami by 2-0 (21-17, 22-20). With one match to go, these two teams share the second place in the pool standings, each on a 1-1 win-loss record. They are behind leaders Tanja Huberli and Nina Betschart of Switzerland, who are now on 2-0 after being awarded the victory in Monday’s fixture against Czechia’s Barbora Hermannova and Marketa Slukova.
