U.S. & Brazilian Women To Meet In World Tour Finals For 95th Time

FIVB WORLD BEACH TOUR – MOSCOW

• May 31 to June 4
• ‘Dynamo’ Beach Sports Centre, Vodniy Stadium
• Co-ed
• 3-Star Event
• Event Site
• Results

In a finals rematch that we have all seen before, the United States and Brazil will meet up in the finals of the FIVB World Beach Tour event in Moscow. This will be the 95th time in the 320 FIVB World Tour event history that the two countries meet in the finals.

The quarterfinals and semifinals concluded their play, with Brazil’s Talita Antunes and Larissa Franca meeting up with the United States’s Summer Ross and Brooke Sweat. The Brazilian pair was an expected entrant to the finals, as they are no strangers to this and competed in the 2016 Rio Olympics together, while American’s Ross/Sweat were the unlikely pair to advance this far.

Quarterfinals

• Summer Ross/Brooke Sweat (USA) def. Karla Borger/Margareta Kozuch (GER) 2-1, (14-21, 21-19, 15-12)
• Victoria Bieneck/Isabel Schneider (GER) def. Maria Antonelli/Carolina Salgado (BRA) 2-0, (21-15, 24-22)
• Agatha Bednarczuk/Eduarda ‘Duda’ Santos Lisboa (BRA) def. Chantal Laboureur/Julia Sude (GER) 2-1, (15-21, 21-17, 15-8)
• Larissa Franca/Talita Antunes (BRA) def. Louise Bawden/Taliqua Clancy (AUS) 2-0, (21-19, 21-17)

Semifinals

• Summer Ross/Brooke Sweat (USA) def. Victoria Bieneck/Isabel Schneider (GER) 2-1, (21-15, 19-21, 17-15)
• Larissa Franca/Talita Antunes (BRA) def. Agatha Bednarczuk/Eduarda ‘Duda’ Santos Lisboa (BRA) 2-1, (23-21, 18-21, 15-10)

Neither of the two duos that made it to the finals had an easy task in the semifinals, as they each took three sets to advance. Each went up in the first, but fell in the second set, but shined in the third to redeem themselves and find themselves in the finals.