Latvia’s Anastasija Kravcenoka and Tina Graudina advanced to their first Final Four on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour as the Sochi 4-star semifinalists emerged on Friday. They will challenge Tanja Huberli and Nina Betschart in one of Saturday’s semis. In the other, Nadezda Makroguzova and Svetlana Kholomina will go against Sarah Sponcil and Kelly Claes.
First Final Four for Kravcenoka & Graudina
Latvia v Switzerland and Russia v USA in Sochi women’s semis
Published 08:31, 28 May 2021
Having finished second in their pool on Thursday, Kravcenoka and Graudina had to win three matches on Friday to reach the best four of the tournament. They won the first two in straight sets, 2-0 (21-16, 21-19) against Spain’s Amaranta Navarro and Angela Lobato and 2-0 (21-17, 21-16) against Germany’s Victoria Bieneck and Isabel Schneider. In the quarterfinal, however, the 10th-seeded Latvians lost the first set to Canada’s Heather Bansley and Brandie Wilkerson, but then battled their way back to a 2-1 (16-21, 21-18, 15-11) victory.
“We were easy about losing the first set to Canada, we kept our concentration and our mindset stayed focused on every ball, point by point,” an elated Kravcenoka told Volleyball World after the quarterfinal win.
“We played three matches today, which was a first for us, because we usually lose in the second round. The fact that we made it to the third round and had nothing to lose put our mentality at 100% and we just went for it!” Graudina added and commented on their next opponents. “Huberli and Betschart are a very good team. We’ve had shared history. We’ve known them for quite some time. It’s tough against them, so we’ll try to recover during the night and just give our all tomorrow.”
The 15th-seeded Swiss pair played only two elimination matches on Friday and did not lose any sets in either. First, they knocked out their compatriots, fifth-seeded Joana Heidrich and Anouk Verge-Depre, by 2-0 (21-19, 21-14), and followed up with a 2-0 (21-14, 21-18) victory over eighth-seeded Sanne Keizer and Madelein Meppelink of the Netherlands.
Sarah Sponcil and Kelly Claes
USA’s Sarah Sponcil and Kelly Claes made a giant step towards qualifying for Tokyo 2020 by claiming two victories over fellow American opponents. In the second elimination round, the 14th-seeded pair produced a 2-0 (21-15, 21-18) shutout of Emily Stockman and Kelley Kolinske. Then, in another all-American match-up, Sponcil and Claes achieved their first-ever win over Alix Klineman and April Ross. After splitting the first two sets, they completely dominated the tie-breaker on the way to a 2-1 (21-18, 19-21, 15-7) victory over the sixth-seeded opponents.
“We’ve been talking a lot about the phrase ‘breakthrough is coming’. We’ve been working out a lot of kinks in the last year and a half. We don’t know how many times we’ve played April and Alix in all different competitions and in practices, but this first win off of them, especially in an FIVB event, at this stage, means a whole lot. We’re never going to forget this moment. It’s been a long time coming, a lot of tears shed on these matches, and it’s so nice to come away with a win!” Kelly and Sarah told Volleyball World. “We are not paying attention to the points. Our coach knows what we have to finish and everything... We are just going out, and playing one point at a time, competing as hard as we can.”
In the last match of the day, top-seeded home favourites Nadezda Makroguzova and Svetlana Kholomina capitalised on the enthusiastic support of the Russian fans on the stands to master a hard-fought 2-0 (21-19, 21-19) victory over third-seeded Agatha Bednarczuk and Eduarda Santos Lisboa of Brazil. In the previous round, the Russian duo also had to deal with Brazilian opponents. After losing a tight first set to Taina Bigi and Victoria Tosta, Makroguzova and Kholomina came back to celebrate with a 2-1 (22-24, 21-18, 15-13) win.
