Pairs from eight different countries claimed the eight main draw vacancies available through Wednesday’s women’s qualifications at the Sochi 4-star stop on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour.
Dumbauskaite & Grudzinskaite claim hard-earned spot in Sochi main draw
Pairs from eight different countries book last eight main draw spots
Published 04:00, 26 May 2021
Ieva Dumbauskaite and Gerda Grudzinskaite were the lowest ranked team to push through to the main draw successfully. Playing as seed 20 in the qualification bracket, the Lithuanian pair started off with a hard-earned 2-0 (21-19, 24-22) over Norway’s Ingrid Lunde and Emilie Olimstad. In the deciding round, Dumbauskaite and Grudzinskaite came back from a set down against fourth-seeded Spaniards Paula Soria and Maria Belen Carro to persevere through a tight tie-breaker and snatch a 2-1 (10-21, 21-15, 16-14) victory.
After unsuccessful attempts to qualify to the main draw at the three 4-star events in Cancun and a fifth-place finish at the Sofia 1-star last week, this is the first time the Lithuanian pair will play in the main draw of a 4-star tournament.
“It’s unbelievable! It’s actually our first normal season together. Last year we played only national tours. We are super excited,” Ieva Dumbauskaite told Volleyball World. “We came here with no expectations, especially against this very strong Spanish team. We lost the first set, but my partner kept fighting through to the end and with a little bit of luck we finally won. We are super happy and we are going to start crying soon. We know that we are in the main draw, but we are not thinking about it right now. We just want to be happy for an hour and enjoy the moment, but, of course, tomorrow we’ll fight for every point till the end.”
Ieva Dumbauskaite in action
The last women’s match of the day was an exciting three-set desert for the fans on the stands at centre court. Spain’s Amaranta Navarro and Angela Lobato disappointed the home crowd with a 2-1 (21-12, 19-21, 15-13) victory over Russia’s Alexandra Moiseeva and Ekaterina Syrtseva.
All other second round matches were resolved in straight sets. Top seeds Brooke Sweat and Kerri Walsh Jennings of USA were the first ones to make it out of the qualification bracket into the main draw. They mastered a speedy 2-0 (21-12, 21-13) shutout of Poland’s Agata Ceynowa and Marta Lodej in under half an hour in the first second-round qualification match.
Netherlands’ Raisa Schoon and Katja Stam, Brazil’s Taina Bigi and Victoria Tosta, Finland’s Riikka Lehtonen and Niina Ahtiainen, Canada’s Megan McNamara and Nicole McNamara and Germany’s Kim Behrens and Sandra Ittlinger were the other pairs who successfully made their way from the qualification battles to Thursday’s main draw.
