Brazil, Russia to Face Off For U21 Beach Title in 2016 Finale Rematch

FIVB U21 Beach Volleyball World Championships

• Nanjing, China
• July 10-16, 2017
• Schedule/Results

A rematch of the 2016 U21 World Championships is on tap for Sunday. Brazil’s Eduarda ‘Duda’ Santos Lisboa and Ana Patricia Silva Ramos, the defending champions, will face off with Russia’s Nadezda Makroguzova/Svetlana Kholomina in the gold medal match.

“We’re so happy because once again here in Nanjing we are able to reach the final,” Ana Patricia said. “We’re a team that doesn’t train together, we only play the youth championships together, so now we’re really looking forward to the final and hope we can win again.”

Duda/Ana Patricia won their quarterfinal and semifinal matches in straight sets, topping Latvia’s Tina Graudina/Anastasija Kravcenoka and Americans Kathryn Plummer/Milica Mirkovic in the quarterfinals and semifinals respectively.

Makroguzova/Kholomina, who won the European U22 Continental Championships earlier this year, advanced to the title match with wins over Viktoryia Shalayeuskaya/Viktoryia Siakretava of Belarus and Italy’s Gaia Traballi/Ester Maestroni.

“I want to say every team in the semifinal and final play better than in the pool,” Makroguzova said. “It’s strange because when you watch the videos, they play another game. But it’s not a problem and we’re very happy. We’ve worked one year for this final and we want to play Brazil and take the gold medal. We gave all our emotion in this game and we’ll see what happens tomorrow.”

Plummer/Mirkovic and Traballi/Maestroni will play for the bronze medal on Sunday prior to the gold medal finale.

Quarterfinals

Eduarda ‘Duda’ Santos Lisboa/Ana Patricia Silva Ramos (Brazil) def. Tina Graudina/Anastasija Kravcenoka (Latvia) 21-19, 21-12

Kathryn Plummer/Milica Mirkovic (USA) def. Nicole McNamara/Megan McNamara (Canada) 21-18, 21-19

Nadezda Makroguzova/Svetlana Kholomina (Russia) def. Viktoryia Shalayeuskaya/Viktoryia Siakretava (Belarus) 21-19, 15-21, 15-11

Gaia Traballi/Ester Maestroni (Italy) def. Natalie Honzovicova/Tereza Pluharova (Czech Republic) 21-9, 21-16

Semifinals

Duda/Ana Patricia (Brazil) def. Plummer/Mirkovic (USA) 21-19, 21-16

Makroguzova/Kholomina (Russia) def. Traballi/Maestroni (Italy) 24-22, 21-12