All-American clash shapes up in one of Xiamen quarterfinals

Saturday’s women’s quarterfinals at the Xiamen Challenge will feature an all-American duel between Julia Scoles & Lexy Denaburg and Toni Rodriguez & Kylie Kuyava-De Berg. Another US team, Savannah Simo & Abby Van Winkle, will take on French Olympians Clemence Vieira & Aline Chamereau. In the other two quarterfinals, Czechia’s Marketa Svozilova & Marie-Sara Stochlova will play against Finland’s Taru Lahti-Liukkonen & Niina Ahtiainen, while Australia’s Elizabeth Alchin & Georgia Johnson will meet German qualifiers Lea Kunst & Melanie Paul. Friday’s women’s program at the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour offered exciting sixteenthfinal and eighthfinal matches.

• Watch the Xiamen Challenge on VBTV

Third-seeded Scoles & Denaburg swept both of their games on Friday, starting with a 2-0 (21-16, 21-18) win over Thailand’s Taravadee Naraphornrapat & Woranatchayakorn Phirachayakrailert and following up with an emphatic 2-0 (21-10, 21-11) shutout of German qualifiers Linda Bock & Louisa Lippmann, to emerge as the highest seeded team still in contention for the medals.

Toni & DeBerg, seeded 13^th, also went through two playoff matches in straight sets – 2-0 (21-15, 21-16) in the sixteenthfinals against Japan’s Saki Maruyama & Miki Ishii and 2-0 (21-13, 21-16) against French qualifiers Lezana Placette & Alexia Richard.

As pool winners, the third American quarterfinalists, 29^th-seeded qualifiers Savvy & Van Winkle, skipped the first knockout round. In the second, they put together a 2-1 (21-15, 19-21, 15-7) victory over compatriots Deahna Kraft & Xolani Hodel.

In their only game of the day, 26^th-seeded Vieira & Chamereau produced a 2-0 (21-14, 21-18) shutout of Lithuania’s Daniele Kvedaraite & Jekaterina Kovalskaja.

Sixth-seeded Svozilova & Stochlova started their day with a 2-0 (21-16, 22-20) win over China’s Yan Xu & Zhou Mingli and followed up with a another straight-set victory, 2-0 (21-18, 21-19), over another Chinese opponent, Cao Shuting & Dong Jie.

Ahtiainen & Lahti also celebrated two straight-set knockouts. First, the 21^st-seeded Finns hammered out a 2-0 (21-10, 21-16) upset of Australia’s Taliqua Clancy & Jana Milutinovic. Then, they swept their eighthfinal against Poland’s Malgorzata Ciezkowska & Urszula Lunio, 2-0 (21-18, 21-18).

Fourth-seeded Alchin & Johnson also worked their way through two rounds of eliminations on Friday. Injury withdrawal by second-seeded Xia Xinyi & Wang Jingzhe of China handed them the victory in the sixteenthfinals. Bottom-seeded Ukrainian qualifiers Yeva Serdiuk & Daria Romaniuk, however, made them work for it in the eighthfinals, as the Aussies achieved a 2-1 (15-21, 21-16, 15-12) comeback.

Even more dramatic was Kunst & Paul’s eighthfinal win over USA’s Brook Bauer & Madelyne Anderson. After three minimum-margin sets, two of which were pushed to overtime, the 28^th-seeded Germans celebrated a 2-1 (21-19, 24-26, 16-14) victory and emerged as the only team from Wednesday’s qualifications still alive in Saturday’s quarterfinals. Before that, Kunst & Paul took another tight 2-0 (23-21, 21-19) win in their sixteenthfinal against Canadian qualifiers Marie-Alex Belanger & Lea Monkhouse.

Quarterfinal action in Xiamen on Saturday will serve off at 11:00 local time (03:00 UTC).

VW Beach Pro Tour Xiamen Challenge: match schedule and results

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