Bieneck and Schneider on to Cancun main draw

Most of the teams that competed in Thursday’s qualifier of the second FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour 4-star in the Cancun Hub had already been in Mexico for quite some time. That, however, wasn’t the case for Germans Victoria Bieneck and Isabel Schneider, who didn’t appear in the first tournament and didn’t arrive at the Playa Delfines until Saturday.

The Germans made the most of their short preparation on Mexican sand and reached their first goal in Cancun as they advanced from the qualifier to the main draw. Seeded third in the qualifier, the Europeans played only one match but needed all three sets (19-21, 21-18, 15-13) to knock out France’s Aline Chamereau and Clemence Vieira.

“I think the French played really well,” the 29-year-old Schneider said. “We had a little bit of a slow start but managed to be more aggressive with our serves from the second set on and that raised our game and helped us win the match.”

The Germans, who won their nation’s country-quota in Hamburg two weeks ago, have been training indoor in their country during the last months and won’t have a lot of time to adjust to the elements in Mexico, especially to the strong wind that was a factor during the first tournament.

“We’ve been here for five days but this was our first match so we can only expect we’ll get better as we play more,” the left-handed defender added. “We heard it’s been really windy here and today it wasn’t that much. We actually like playing in the wind but we’ve been training inside in Germany for quite some time so hopefully we can adjust quickly.”

Cubans Lidiannis ‘Lidy’ Echeverria and Yanisleidis Sanchez were the only team to advance in Cancun for the second week in a row as the Caribbeans eliminated the Colombian Galindo sisters Claudia and Andrea with a 2-0 (21-12, 21-19) victory.

Top-seeded Carol Solberg and Barbara Seixas of Brazil had a tough match against Norwegians Sunniva Helland-Hansen and Ingrid Lunde, but managed to secure a 2-1 (21-12, 18-21, 15-13) win and move to the main draw.

The other five teams to qualify were second-seeded Kelly Claes/Sarah Sponcil of the USA, 11th-seeded Alexia Richard/Lezana Placette of France, 20th-seeded Esmee Bobner/Zoe Verge-Depre, 21st-seeded Katja Stam/Raisa Schon and 26th-seeded Emi van Driel/Mexime van Driel, both of the Netherlands.

The main draw starts on Friday and matches will be streamed live on the Beach Volleyball World Youtube channel. Subscribe, log in and set reminders to receive notifications when streams begin.

Go to:
Cancun Hub - 2nd event
Cancun Hub - 2nd event - Match schedule
Provisional Olympic ranking - Men
Provisional Olympic ranking - Women

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