Liliana Fernаndez and Elsa Baquerizo won the only three-setter out of the four women’s matches on Sunday’s programme at the Olympic beach volleyball tournament in Tokyo.

In their first Pool B game at Shiokaze Park, three-time Olympians Liliana and Elsa came back from a set down to celebrate a tiebreak victory over Sanne Keizer and Madelein Meppelink of the Netherlands. The Spanish pair narrowly lost the first set, but got their act together for the next two. In the deciding set, they wasted a double match point, but at their next opportunity to close the game, Liliana did so with a monster block to shape up the final 2-1 (19-21, 21-18, 16-14).

“It was very good win,” Elsa told Volleyball World after the game. “The match was very tight. The two teams have known each other for a long time, so we knew it was going to be tough. We had to fight until the end, and in the end it was just little details that decided to which side it was going to go. So we are very happy!”

“It was very intense and emotional to finish like this,” Liliana commented on her super block winner. “It was a little bit tough for me. I had a lot of ups and downs in my side-out, but with Elsa’s help I think I managed.”

In the earlier Pool B match on Sunday morning, April Ross, a medallist of the previous two editions of the Olympic Games, and Alix Klineman of USA lived up to expectations in their encounter with China’s Chen Xue and Xinxin Wang. The Americans, who are also silver medallists of the 2019 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship, claimed a 2-0 (21-17, 21-19) victory.

Two straight-setters were played in Pool E. First, Australia’s Mariafe Artacho and Taliqua Clancy, World Championship bronze medallists, produced a 2-0 (21-15, 21-14) shutout of Cuba’s Lidy Echeverria and Leila Martinez. Then, Nadezda Makroguzova and Svetlana Kholomina of ROC outplayed Italy’s Marta Menegatti and Viktoria Orsi Toth by 2-0 (21-18, 21-15).

Quick links:
Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 - Schedule and results
Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 - Beach volleyball
FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour
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