2017 FIVB BEACH VOLLEYBALL WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS – VIENNA
- July 28 to August 6
- Vienna Centre Court, Vienna, Austria
- Co-ed
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With eight pool titles already decided on Monday, the final four groups took center stage Tuesday morning. Up for grabs were spots in the Round of 32 for the top two finishers in each pool. Four more positions coming from those deemed the top four third place teams also were in play.
The top two seeds – No. 1 Larissa Franca and Talita Altunes of Brazil and No. 2 Chantal Laboureur and Julia Sude of Germany – but two top five seeds fell.
Americans Summer Ross/Brooke Sweat, the No. 5 seed, were one of those teams who struggled, falling in three sets. The pair still advanced to the Round of 32 with a pool victory, doing so on point ratio.
“It was tough but we made it even tougher on ourselves,” Sweat said. “We had so many chances but our setting and our rhythm was just way off and we never changed it. We’re not going to beat any teams playing like that so we have a lot regrouping to do. I’m happy we still won pool but that’s a crappy way to go out and I’m really pissed about it. It didn’t matter what they did. Our side was so ugly it did not matter what was happening on the other side of the court. With this wind, we wanted to be good at every contact. If we’re really good on pass and set we can make a good shot but we weren’t good at those two and we made so many unforced errors and just kind of gave it to them.”
Brazil’s Agatha Bednarczuk/Eduarda “Duda ” Lisboa fell in straight sets to Madelein Meppelink and Sophie Van Gestel of the Netherlands, but also made their way into the Round of 32 as one of the top four third place teams.
““The first game against Canada in this tournament we didn’t play our best game, so that made us sharper as we knew what we had to do,” Meppelink said. “I think it all came out in this game. We Dutchies like a bit of wind so maybe that luck was on our side. We played a really good game. Now we have to play point by point, and give everything each point. We did that really well in this game.
Top 12 Results
#1 Larissa/Talita (Brazil) def. Bieneck/Schneider (Germany) 21-16, 21-18
#2 Laboureur/Sude (Germany) def. def. Elsa/Amaranta (Spain) 21-17, 21-16
Meppelink/Van Gestel (Netherlands) def. #3 Agatha/Duda 21-19, 21-15
Valentyna Davidova/Ievgeniia Shchypkova (Ukraine) def. #5 Summer Ross/Brooke Sweat 21-17, 16-21, 15-11
Pool Winners from Tuesday
Larissa/Talita (Brazil) – Pool A
Laboureur/Sude – Pool B
Meppelink/Van Gestel (Netherlands) – Pool C
Summer/Sweat (USA) – Pool E
After the top two spots were claimed in each group, four third place teams were given a pass to the round of 32. Those teams included Agatha/Duda and Davidova/Shchypkova as well as Brazilians Barbara/Fernanda and Chinese duo Xue/Wang. The remaining eight third place teams went into the Lucky Loser’s bracket to decide the final four spots in the Round of 32.
In the end, all five Brazilian teams made it to the Round of 32. Four American sides – Emily Day/Nicole Branagh, Summer/Sweat, Sarah Hughes/Kelly Claes and April Ross/Lauren Fendrick – also made it through.
Pool Winners from Monday
Laura Ludwig/Kira Walkenhorst (Germany) – Pool D
Barbora Hermannova/Marketa Slukova (Czech Republic) – Pool F
Melissa Humana-Paredes/Sarah Pavan (Canada) – Pool G
Taiana Lima/Eliza Maia (Brazil) – Pool H
Maria Antonelli/Carolina Salgado (Brazil) – Pool I
Nina Betschart/Tanja Huberli (Switzerland) – Pool J
Lauren Fendrick/April Ross (USA) – Pool K
Kristyna Kolocova/Michala Kvapilova (Czech Republic) – Pool L
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