Top Five Seeds, Klineman/Ross, Larsen/Stockman Win Gstaad Pool Titles

  0 Wendy Mayer | July 12th, 2018 | FIVB Majors Series, FIVB World Tour, News, Pro Beach

Gstaad Five Star – Beach Major Series

Americans Kelley Larsen/Emily Stockman won their fifth match in Gstaad to claim the Pool G title and a free pass to the second elimination round on Friday.

After winning two country quota matches and one qualifying match, the duo stayed perfect with their second Pool G victory with a tiebreak win over countrywomen Summer Ross/Sara Hughes (19-21, 26-24, 15-12).

Fellow Americans Alix Klineman/April Ross, the No. 9 seed, were also among the eight pool winners, closing out Pool H with a straight set win over Joana Heidrich/Anouk Verge-Depre.

No. 11 Victoria Bieneck/Isabel Schneider (Germany) upset No. 6 Maria Antonelli/Carol Solberg Salgado (Brazil) in tiebreak to claim the Pool F title. Bieneck/Schneider dropped the opening set 21-14, but rebounded for a 21-19, 15-11 win.

The top five women’s seeds also were pool winners:

  • Pool A: No. 1 Melissa Humana-Paredes/Sarah Pavan (Canada)
  • Pool B: No. 2 Heather Bansley/Brandie Wilkerson (Canada)
  • Pool C: No. 3 Agatha Bednarczuk/Eduarda ‘Duda’ Lisboa (Brazil)
  • Pool D: No. 4 Taliqua Clancy/Mariafe Artacho del Solar (Australia)
  • Pool E: No. 5 Barbora Hermannova/Marketa Slukova (Czech Republic)

Six of the 18 matches went the distance with Agatha/Duda and Bansley/Wilkerson among the victors.

Agatha/Duda topped Russians Svetlana Kholomina/Nadezda Makroguzova (21-19, 20-22, 15-10), while Bansley/Wilkerson played three deuce sets, winning the final two against homestanding Nina Betschart/Tanja Huberli of Switzerland.

Americans Kerri Walsh Jennings/Nicole Branaugh moved on to Friday as the runnerup in Pool E, falling to Hermannova/Slukova 21-19, 21-14. The duo will play Germans Chantal Laboureur/Julia Sude, who won the 2017 Gstaad title, in the first elimination round.

Summer Ross/Sara Hughes also will play on Friday, looking to bounce back against Japan’s Azusa Futami/Akiko Hasegawa.

Fourteenth seeded Lauren Fendrick/Emily Day of the USA also lost on Thursday, but it was the pair’s second of the competition, knocking them out of contention. Japan’s No. 30 Megumi Murakami/Miki Ishii came out on top 21-16, 21-13. 

Gstaad Thursday Women

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About Wendy Mayer

Wendy Mayer

Wendy Mayer has worked in athletics media relations for the last 20 years. The Northwest Missouri State alumna is currently senior writer for Volleymob.com after spending the last 15 years with Purdue athletics.

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