Brazil’s Returning Partners Larissa/Talita Win Gold in Ft. Lauderdale

2017 FIVB WORLD TOUR SEASON OPENER

• Tuesday, Feb 7 – Sunday, Feb 12, 2017
• Fort Lauderdale, FL (Eastern Time Zone)
• Swatch Major Series site
• Finals live stream: RedBullTV
• Full event live stream

The first event of the 2017 FIVB Swatch Majors Series is in the books, and just like the men’s side, the women’s tournament resulted in an all-Brazilian final, with two brand new pairings finding their way to the top of the podium.

Semi-Finals

• Agatha/Duda (Brazil) def. Laboureur/Sude (Germany) 2-1 (24-26, 21-18, 15-11)
• Match Stats

In the first semi-final, new pairing Agatha Bednarczuk and Eduardo ‘Duda’ Santos Lisboa  knocked off Germany’s Julia Sude and Chantal Laboureur.

The Germans took the first set in an epic 26-24 showdown thanks to a balanced attack and 2 service aces from Sude. Those would be their only two aces of the match, however.

After Agatha dominated the Brazilians’ scoring in the first (9-2), the team switched their focus, and then rolled to wins in the next 2 sets. In the 2nd, Duda had 11 of the team’s 17 kills, and in the clincher she had 7 of the team’s 11.

• Larissa/Talita Antunes (Brazil) def. Sweat/S. Ross (United States) 2-0 (21-16, 21-16)
• Match Stats

With a big offensive output by Talita, and nary a block for either team, Larissa and Talita Atunes beat new American pair Brooke Sweat and Summer Ross 2-0.

Unlike most of the Brazilians, Larissa/Talita survived the big Brazilian shakeup to continue on as a pair from their run to last summer’s Olympic Games. That continuity gave them the 2nd-seed coming into the tournament.

After a balanced opening, Talita/Altunes dominated the scoring into the back end of the second half and for most of the second set as well to advance to the gold medal game.

Bronze medal match

• Laboureur/Sude (Germany) def. Sweat/S. Ross 2-0 (21-14, 21-14)
• Match Stats

The German pair of Laboureur/Sude corrected their 14-error performance in the semi-finals to play a relatively clean game with just 3 errors.

The pair didn’t earn their first podium finish of last year’s season until the end of April, the 5th tournament they played. Their continuity as another side that carried over from last season paid off early in this season with the win in Ft. Lauderdale.

Gold medal match

• Larissa/Talita (Brazil) def. Agatha/Duda (Brazil) 2-0 (21-15, 21-18)
• Match Stats

The Brazilians Agatha and Duda tried to carry-over the strategy that served them well in the semi-finals, leaning heavily on Duda offensively, but in spite of her having 19 of the team’s 25 kills, they fell in 2 sets to Larissa and Talita.

Larissa and Talita’s chemistry showed in the final, committing just 1 attack error as compared to 6 for their opponents. One thing the pairing can clean up going forward is in the service game – specifically, Larissa had 11 errors in 8 sets in the knockout stages of the tournament – though that wound up not costing the pair a single one of those 8 sets.