Apeldoorn, Netherlands, July 1, 2015 – Elimination rounds began Wednesday in Apeldoorn with women’s teams from Brazil, Canada, China and the United States winning their first round matches in the Market Square stadium at the internationally-televised double-gender $1,000,000 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships the Netherlands 2015.
Featuring the world’s best players, this global biannual tournament is being anchored in The Hague, with pool play and elimination rounds through the quarterfinals also being played in Amsterdam, Apeldoorn and Rotterdam.
Following the end of pool play, the top 32 women’s and 32 men’s teams from the original 48 per gender have now started the knockout rounds with eight teams per gender in each city. Thursday’s schedule will include the Round of eight and the quarterfinals for each gender before the final four teams in each gender move to The Hague for the final three days featuring the semifinals and medal matches.
APELDOORN WOMEN’S ROUND OF 16 RESULTS
Moving forward to the women’s round of eight in Apeldoorn on Wednesday were Canada’s Melissa Humana-Paredes, Brazil’s Agatha Bednarczuk/Barbara Seixas, USA’s Kerri Walsh Jennings/April Ross and China’s Fan Wang/Yuan Yue.
Starting the day’s action on the Apeldoorn Market Square stadium court, Canada’s 24th-seeded Humana-Paredes/Pischke, Canada upset Slovak Republic’s 14th-seeded Apeldoorn pool winner Natalia Dubovcova/Dominika Nestarcova, 24-22, 21-15 in 41 minutes.
In the second women’s round of 16 match, Brazil’s third-seeded Bednarczuk/Seixas played a familiar opponent and had to come back for a first set loss to win in three sets over Canada’s 29th-seeded Jamie Lynn Broder/Kristina Valjas, 14-21, 21-16 and 15-7 in 46 minutes.
Third up out of the four women’s matches, USA’s Walsh Jennings/Ross overpowered Paraguay’s Gabriela Filippo/Michelle Valiente in straight sets, 21-6, 21-10 in just 28 minutes.
The final Apeldoorn women’s round of 16 match saw China’s 12th-seeded Wang/Yue defeat USA’s 19th-seeded Jennifer Kessy/Emily Day in straight sets, 21-19, 21-18 in 40 minutes.
The losing teams in Apeldoorn’s women’s round of 16 leave the Netherlands with official 17th-place finishes and $7,000 in prize money.
APELDORN WOMEN’S ROUND OF 16 RECAP
In the first round of 16 matches, Canada’s Humana-Paredes/Pischke maintained the service edge in a tight first match before pulling it out in the end. In the second set, Slovak Republic’s Dubovcova/Nestarcova led briefly again with the same 7-6 edge as the first set but the eager Canadians continued to make fewer mistakes and pulled ahead 17-14 and 19-14 before Humanes-Paredes ended the set and the match with an ace serve.
Canada’s Humana-Parades/Pischke duo is now 2-0 all-time in FIVB competition against Slovak Republic’s Dubovcova/Nestarcova.
In the second women’s Apeldoorn match of the day, Brazil’s Bednarczuk/Seixas had to come from behind to overcome the challenge presented by Canada’s 29th-seeded Broder/Valjas. In the first set, Canada’s Broder/Valjas broke open a close match, extending their lead from 7-5 to 14-10 and then 17-10 to win by seven points. Regrouping for the second set and tiebreaker set, Brazil’s Bednarczuk/Seixas broke from the gate to a 7-3 lead, maintained it at 14-10, extended it to 17-11 before closing it out with a five-point margin at the end.
In the tiebreaker, Brazil’s Bednarczuk/Seixas changed tactics again, opening to a 5-1 lead, extending it to 10-4 and still keeping their distance at 12-7 before scoring the final three points of the set and match to earn the victory.
Brazil’s Bednarczuk/Seixas tandem now has a 7-1 all-time record against Canada’s Broder/Valjas in FIVB competition.
In the third women’s Apeldoorn match USA’s third-seeded Kerri Walsh Jennings/April Ross came out strong against Paraguay’s Filippo/Valiente and never really let up to earn their fourth win in these FIVB World Championships. A bit tentative in the first set, USA’s Walsh Jennings/Ross led by7-5 but a barrage of powerful serves by Ross and timely blocks by Walsh Jennings put the USA ahead at 14-5 and 17-5 before closing it with a 15-point victory margin.
In the second set, USA’s Walsh Jennings/Ross came out firing even stronger, opening up a 7-0 lead and moved it to 14-5 and 17-8 before ending it on a Ross kill.
USA’s Ross, who won the 2009 FIVB World Championship and the silver medal at the 2012 London Olympic Games, reflected afterwards, “We had never seen that team before, we didn't really know what to expect. We prepared really well again just like we have for all the other matches, we played aggressive, we played together and I think we are still moving forward.
USA’s Walsh Jennings, who has won three Olympic and three FIVB World Championships gold medals, said following her team’s latest win, “That was a great match, really tough serving by this woman (April Ross), made life very easy for me which is very much appreciated, thank you. Moving forward, we either play China or USA. Either match will be really tough, either match we are ready for. We want this sucker so bad. We have four more matches to win, this is one more down and it's all about tomorrow.”
In the last of the four women’s matches in Apeldoorn Wednesday, China’s Wang/Yue broke up both sets after each started with their side leading 7-5. In the first set, USA’s Kessy/Day actually took a lead at 14-13 regained it at 17-16 and the Chinese the scored five of the last seven points to win.
In the second set, China’s Wang/Yue continued their mostly consistent play taking a lead of 14-10 lead before USA’s Kessy/Day rallied some to close the gap to two points at 17-15 when China’s Wang/Yue scored four of the next six points to win the set and the match.
With China’s Wang/Yue playing in their 23rd FIVB event with two silver medals and three fourth place finishes, this was only the fifth FIVB tournament as a team for USA’s Kessy/Day. Kessy won the 2009 FIVB World Championships and earned the silver medal at the 2012 London Olympic Games teamed with April Ross.
FORMAT
With a total of 96 tandems (48 in each gender), two-person teams are competing for part of a $1 million purse as the Netherlands hosts an FIVB international event for the sixth consecutive year. Anchored in The Hague round-robin Pool Play was played in The Hague, Amsterdam, Apeldoorn and Rotterdam along with the first three rounds of elimination play for the 32 teams remaining per gender following three rounds of pool play.
The elimination rounds through the quarterfinals will be held in each of the four participating cities. The quarterfinal winners in each gender will move to The Hague after Thursday’s matches. The women’s semifinals will be on Friday and the women’s medal matches will be held on Saturday. The men’s semifinals will be played Saturday and the men’s medal matches will be played on Sunday.
PURSE
The gold medal winning teams in each gender will earn $60,000 while the silver medalists will take home $45,000 with the bronze medalists netting $35,000 with $28,000 going to the fourth place finishers.
VENUE
All matches in Apeldoorn are being played on Market Square. A purpose-built stadium with a capacity of 2,000 seats was erected on the atmospheric square in the city centre. Market Square is overlooked by the modern town hall and is surrounded by shops, bars and restaurants.
2015 FIVB BEACH VOLLEYBALL WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
The Hague, Amsterdam, Apeldoorn, Rotterdam – Netherlands
WOMEN’S RESULTS – Wednesday, July 1
Market Square Stadium – Apeldoorn, Netherlands
APELDOORN Round of 32(seed, players, country, score, time)
(24) Melissa Humana-Paredes/Taylor Pischke, Canada def. (14) Natalia Dubovcova/Dominika Nestarcova, Slovak Republic, 24-22, 21-15 (41 minutes)
(6) Agatha Bednarczuk/Barbara Seixas, Brazil def. (29) Jamie Lynn Broder/Kristina Valjas, Canada, 14-21, 21-16 and 15-7 (46)
(3) Kerri Walsh Jennings/April Ross, United States def. (32) Gabriela Flippo/Michelle Valiente, Paraguay, 21-6, 21-10 (28)
(12) Fan Wang/Yuan Yue, China def. (19) Jennifer Kessy/Emily Day, United States, 21-19, 21-18 (40)