Acapulco, Mexico, July 19, 2014 — Moving with grace and skill in spite of all being under 17 years old, eight men’s teams from eight countries survived tough round of 16 matches Saturday morning to advance to the quarterfinals early Saturday evening at the inaugural double-gender FIVB Beach Volleyball U17 World Championships being held through Sunday in Acapulco, Mexico.
Winners in Saturday’s round of 16 eliminations were teams from host country Mexico along with Canada, France, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Puerto Rico and Switzerland. They winners now advance to the quarters while the losing teams leave Acapulco with great memories of being part of a world championship event and official ninth-place finishes.
The original men’s field of 25 teams representing each of the five FIVB Confederations has been reduced to 16 for Saturday’s round of 16 and quarterfinals to set the stage for Sunday’s semifinals, bronze medal and gold medal matches. Being held at Playa Tamarindos in Acapulco Bay at the event will determine the first FIVB U17 World Champions in each gender on Sunday.
QUARTERFINAL MATCHUPS
Two of the men’s quarterfinals will be held at 5 p.m. local time Saturday while the other two are scheduled to start at 6 p.m. today.
The first quarterfinal matches at 5 p.m. will see Netherland’s Mees Blom/Nikita Artamonov meeting Spain’s Oscar Jimenez/Alejandro Huerta and Poland’s Adam Lenc/Maciej Lewicki playing Canada’s Jordan Pereira/Taryq Sani.
The final two quarterfinals at 6 p.m. will have Mexico’s home-country favorites Jose Cardenas/Raymond Stephens, both of Colima, playing on the Tamarindos center court against France’s Marc Darrieux/Timothee Platre and Italy’s Manuel Alfieri/Paolo Di Silvestre battling Switzerland’s Florian Breer/Yves Haussener.
Mexico’s three men’s teams all advanced to the round of 16 and one advanced to the quarterfinals as one of five Mexican women’s teams in the tournament has al made it to the quarterfinals of their tournament.
ROUND OF 16 RESULTS
Challenging until the very last Mikasa hit the sand, the first four men’s round of 16 matches saw Mexico’s Cardenas/Stephens, defeated Canada’s Jordan Pereira/ Taryq Sani; 21-16, 21-17 in 35 minutes, Canada’s Sharone Evans/Parvir Jhajj get past Mexico’s Hernandez/Martinez, 21-12, 21-15 in 47 minutes, Italy’s Manuel Alfieri/Paolo Di Silvestre outlasted Mexico’s Miguel Verduzco/Miguel Sarabia, both from Tijuana in two overtime sets, 24-22, 23-21 in 45 minutes and Netherland’s Mees Blom/Nikita Artamonov slip past Puerto Rico’s Ricardo Muratti/Gustavo Buitrago, 21-19, 25-23 in 44 minutes.
The other four round of 16, Poland’s Adam Lenc/Maciej Lewicki beat Turkey’s Mehmet Yildiz/Tomas Onder, 21-18, 21-14 in 40 minutes and Spain’s Oscar Jimenez/Alejandro Huerta eliminated USA’s Aidan Brown/Lucas Lossone, 21-9, 21-16 in 33 minutes, Switzerland’s Florian Breer/Yves Haussener overcame Russia’s Alexey Trokhan/Vasilii Ivanov, 21-16, 21-15 in 38 minutes and France’s Darrieux/Platre defeated USA’s Will Schlotman Bantie/Robert Mullahey, 21-18, 21-13 in 42 minutes.