FIVB/P1440 Las Vegas Open
- Las Vegas Festival Grounds; Las Vegas, Nevada
- Oct. 15-21, 2018
- Schedule/Results
- Watch Live: Men; Women
After a country quota match for the Brazilian women on Monday, qualifying action began in earnest on Wednesday with a round of women’s play and two round of men’s qualifying at the Las Vegas Open co-sponsored by p1440 and the FIVB.
In the end, eight men’s teams and eight women’s teams battled their way to the 32-team main draw, which is set to begin on Thursday with pool play.
Four American men’s pairs and three United States women’s duos were among those that moved on.
Reid Priddy/Jeremy Casebeer started the day in Round 1 play with a sweep of Spain’s Pastor/Burgal (21-14, 21-11).
Also winning in the three-match first round were Greeks Angelos Mandilaris/Vasileios Mandilaris and Canada’s William Hoey/Ivan Reka.
The Greeks road ended in Round 2 at the hands of Americans Trevor Crabb/Tri Bourne (21-18, 21-17). Hoey/Reka also were ousted in Round 2, falling to Poland’s Jakub Szalankiewicz/Maciej Rudol in tiebreak (21-16, 19-21, 15-11).
Five American duos played in the second round, with Miles Evans/Bill Kolinske knocking out countrymen Avery Drost/Eric Zaun in tiebreak (18-21, 21-19, 16-14).
Priddy/Casebeer also won in tiebreak, topping China’s Gao Peng/Likejiang Ha (13-21, 27-25, 15-11). Sean Rosenthal/Chase Budinger also went the distance, besting Canada’s Aaron Nusbaum/Michael Plantinga (21-15, 19-21, 15-13).
The Round 2 winners, which earned a spot in the main draw were:
- Crabb/Bourne (USA)
- Romain Di Giantommaso/Jeremy Silvestre (France)
- Jiaxin Wu/Yang Li (China)
- Kolinske/Evans (USA)
- Priddy/Casebeer (USA)
- Youssef Krou/Edouard Rowlandson (France)
- Rosenthal/Budinger (USA)
- Szalankiewicz/Rudol (Poland)
In women’s action, just one of the eight matches went to tiebreak, with Norway’s Ingrid Lunde/Oda Ulveseth outlasting Sweden’s Tadva Yoken/Sofia Ogren (24-22, 20-22, 15-8).
“We were behind in the second set and just thought we had nothing to lose and that we needed to keep pushing,” Ulveseth said. “It was a little windy too and we had to adjust to it. We had a long trip from China and we’re happy that we managed to qualify.”
The seven other teams moving on the main draw are:
- Ana Patricia Silva Ramos/Rebecca Cavalcanti Barbosa Silva (Brazil)
- MeiMei Lin/Zhu Lingdi (China)
- Maria Clara Salgado Solberg/Elize Maia (Brazil)
- Brittany Howard/Nicole Branagh (USA)
- Betsi Flint/Emily Day (USA)
- Taiana Silva Bigi/Victoria Lopes Pereira (Brazil)
- Sarah Sponcil/Kelly Claes (USA)
Ana Patricia/Rebecca are fresh off a runnerup finish at the Yangzhou Four Star on Sunday and a gold medal at the Qinzhou Three Star two weeks ago.
“We arrived from China on Monday and we are still dealing with the time-difference and the sand, which is a little bit different than the one we played at in China,” Rebecca said. “It wasn’t our best game but we were very focused and aware that we are still adapting to the tournament, so it was a good start.”
Sponcil/Claes also finished on the podium in Qinzhou, picking up the bronze.
Men’s and women’s pool play in Las Vegas is set begin at noon ET Thursday (9 a.m. PT).
Las Vegas Men – Qualifying
Las Vegas Women – Qualifying
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