Acapulco, Mexico, July 18, 2014 — Setting the stage for the final rounds of the event, the last of four women’s round-robin pool play matches and the first elimination round were held Friday as the 16 top under 17 year-old women’s teams at the inaugural FIVB U17 Beach Volleyball World Championships being held through Sunday in Acapulco, Mexico.
Following the first elimination round early Friday evening, the sweet 16 now advance to the round of 16 and quarterfinals on Sunday. A total of 29 women’s teams representing each of the five FIVB Confederations, started competing Wednesday at Playa Tamarindos in Acapulco Bay alongside of the sparkling Pacific Ocean and Sunday’s schedule will have the two semifinals, bronze medal and gold medal matches to determine the first FIVB U17 World Champions in the double-gender event.
ACAPULCO HEATHigh temperatures and strong humidity were no match for the intense heat on the competition courts generated by the teams battling for a unique title.
MOVING FORWARD
Winning the first round of elimination round matches early Friday evening were two teams from host country Mexico and one team each from Bolivia, England, Greece, Italy, Netherlands and Turkey. The losers from the first round leave Mexico with official 17th place finishes. Their opponents will be the top eight finishers from the six pools.
Moving forward to the round of 16 are Mexico’s Isis Camacho/Olga Parra, Mexico’s Ana Aldape/Rocio Ramirez, Bolivia’s Fernanda Maida/Melanie Vargas, England’s Anaya Evans/Yasmin Kaashoek, Greece’s Maria Klepkou/Paraskevi Kourtidou, Italy’s Reka Orsi Toth/Silvia D’Este, Netherlands’ Nika Daalderop/Susanne Kos and Turkey’s Duygu Nur Dogan/Pelin Ilgin.
ROUND OF 16 SETHere are the matchups for Saturday morning’s round of 16 with the winners advancing to the quarterfinals early Saturday evening.
In the first four matches, Puerto Rico’s Robilee Frederick/Natalie Cruz will meet Turkey’s Dogan/Ilgin; Greece’s Klepkou/Kourtidou will play France’s Coralie Viale/Ines Ben Jaddi; USA’s Haley Hallgren/Joy Dennis will go up against England’s Evans/Kaashoek and Bolivia’s Maida/Vargas will challenge Czech Republic’s Natalie Honzovicova/Tereza Pluharova.
In the final four round of 16 matches, Serbia’s Irena Drobnjak/Tijana Basic will be challenged by Netherlands’ Daalderop/Kos; Italy’s Orsi Toth/D’Este will face off against Latvia’s Tina Graudina/Linda Gramberga; Poland’s Martyna Kloda/Monika Warczyglowa will be challenged by Mexico’s Camacho/Parra and Mexico’s Aldape/Ramirez will meet USA’s Morgan Martin/Kathryn Plummer.
One of the many teams in Acapulco which have produced some extremely positive results, England’s Evans/Kaashoek have advanced to the round of 16 after the first elimination round win over Mexico’s Alejandra Tapia/Daniela Torres in two sets, 21-16, 21-13 in 42 minutes.
In a fairly rare appearance for her homeland in a competition like this, Evans commented after her team’s win on Saturday, “We are looking forward our match with the USA, we’ve had the opportunity to seen them play and we know that they are good but not unbeatable. I think that our biggest strength is that we remain together, we do not fall apart. We stick with each other no matter what. We are pleased but not so surprised in our results so far here in Mexico because we know how hard we have worked to be in this place at this special time.”
Evans’ teammate Kaashoek also with plenty to say after the match, “We picked up the pace and our effort and it just showed in the match that we come together and that we are just not a small country in terms of beach volleyball, so it’s a big win and for our country. It is our first international event and we trained here for five days to get used because England is windy, rainy and not very warm. So we have made a lot of adjustments.”
SPECIAL PLACE
Playing in the sand-steps of FIVB World Tour stars who graced Playa Tamarindos three times previously for FIVB World Tour Open events (1999, 2005, 2006), the FIVB U17 World Championships had women’s teams split into six pools for four round-robin matches within their respective pools. The top four teams from each pool, 24 teams, advanced to the knockout, single-elimination rounds on Friday and Saturday to eventually move to Sunday’s semifinals, bronze medal match and gold medal match and crowning of the first women’s FIVB U17 World Champion.