Paraguay pair Sofia Paredes & Fiorella Nunez eased into the Round of 16 of the 2023 FIVB Beach Volleyball U21 World Championship with a comprehensive win over Brazil to gain pole position in Pool F.

“La guerra guarani (the fight of guarani),” synchronously said out loud by Sofia and Fio on describing their game.

The two are convinced that the strength and power of their ancestors are what gives them the heart to fight on the beach volleyball court.

“It’s the power of our indigenous people, it describes our strength – the strength from our ancestors,” Fio said.

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Guarani is not just the indigenous tongue in Paraguay, but it is rather deeply embedded in their culture and way of life. To simply say it, it is where their roots are.

In their match against Brazil’s Carolina Sallaberry & Larissa Ferreira that wrapped up pool play, Sofia/Fio showed strength of mind by turning around the fortunes in the first set. The Paraguayans rallied down the final stretch of the opening set to win 23-21.

Then showed strength of heart and character in the second set, prowling and pouncing on every opportunity to score until putting away the game with a comfortable cushion to win the match at 21-14.

“We are very happy, it was our goal from the beginning. We are happy for this victory and now we will search for our next goal,” Sofia said.

“We fought hard and put a lot of power in our hearts and on the match. We focused and we tried our best today,” Fio added.

The two young athletes are products of the Paraguayan federation’s beach volleyball program that started 10 years ago.

“They train twice a day and have physical training, but the beach volleyball program in Paraguay started 10 years ago by our national federation. We started competing at event of the South American Confederation. We also brought in some foreign coaches to Paraguay to develop the sport in the country,” said coach Lucilia Almeida.

“These girls started beach volleyball when they were young. They play beach volleyball a lot since there is a national league. They play in a lot of tournaments inside and outside of Paraguay and they are developing well.

“This is the generation that is writing beach volleyball history in Paraguay. But now we must make this change for these girls to transition from youth to senior. This is the phase we are in right now.”

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