Five American Pairs Among Women’s Top 16 in Yangzhou

FIVB Yangzhou Four Star

• Oct. 9-14, 2018
• Yanzhou, China
• Schedule/Results

The women finished out pool play and the first elimination round on Friday.

Six of the second round matches went to tiebreak, including the pool title matches in Pool A, C and H.

In Pool A, it was an all-Brazilian affair, which saw top seeded Barbara Seixas de Freitas/Fernanda Alves fall to No. 16 Ana Patricia/Rebecca 21-17, 20-22, 15-10.

In Pool C, Russia’s No. 19 Evgenia Ukolova/Ekaterina Birlova edged past third seeded Americans Sara Hughes/Summer Ross 21-18, 13-21, 15-12.

In Pool H, ninth-seeded Americans Kelly Claes/Kerri Walsh Jennings held on for the 21-17, 17-21, 15-11 win over China’s No. 8 Fan Wang/Chen Xue.

“We just needed to focus on being aggressive,” Claes said. “I needed to get the set a little bit tighter for Kerri so she can just get up and hit the ball. I tuned up my serve by being more aggressive on that. Fixing those two things and some consistent passing got us there.”

Pool B was a battle of two American teams with No. 15 Betsi Flint/Emily Day outdoing No. 2 seed Alix Klineman/April Ross in straight sets (21-18, 21-19).

Pool winners, which earned a free pass to the Round of 16, were:

• Pool A: #16 Ana Patricia/Rebecca (Brazil)
• Pool B: #15 Betsi Flint/Emily Day (USA)
• Pool C: #19 Evgenia Ukolova/Ekaterina Birlova (Russia)
• Pool D: #4 Sarah Pavan/Melissa Humana-Paredes (Canada)
• Pool E: #5 Emily Stockman/Kelley Larsen (USA)
• Pool F: #6 Nina Betschart/Tanja Huberli (Switzerland)
• Pool G: #10 Marta Menegatti/Viktoria Orsi Toth (Italy)
• Pool H: #9 Kerri Walsh Jennings/Kelly Claes (USA)

In the first elimination round, teams from five countries earned their spot in the Round of 16 with two teams from the United States and two from Brazil highlighting the group. All eight Round 1 matches were decided in straight sets.

The eight victors were:

• #13 Kinga Kolosinska/Katarzyna Kociolek (Poland)
• #1 Barbara/Fernanda (Brazil)
• #3 Sara Hughes/Summer Ross (USA)
• #22 Amaranta Navarro/Angela Lobato (Spain)
• #25 Maria Clara/Elize Maia (Brazil)
• #8 Fan Wang/Chen Xue (China)
• #2 Alix Klineman/April Ross (USA)
• #17 Anastasija Kravcenoka/Tina Graudina (Latvia)

The marquee matchup of Round 2 will pit former American partners Kerri Walsh Jennings and April Ross against each other. The pair won the Olympic bronze medal together in 2016 before parting ways in the spring of 2017.

Women’s Round 2 action is set to begin at 10:40 p.m. ET.