Prague, Czech Republic, May 21, 2015 - The opening pool play matches here Thursday morning in the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Prague Open 2015 featured successful efforts by a pair of teams that had to spend a cool and wet Wednesday qualifying for this week’s FIVB World Tour stop on the sands of Stvanice Stadium.
The pairs of 28th-seeded Brittany Hochevar/Heather McGuire of the United States and 29th-seeded Rimke Braakman/Jolien Sinnema of The Netherlands upset higher-seeded teams from the Slovak Republic and the Czech Republic to tie for the leadership in their pools after one round of group play.
After defeating teams from France and the Ukraine in Wednesday's 32-team qualification tournament, Hochevar and McGuire posted a 2-0 (24-22 and 21-17) win in 41 minutes over fifth-seeded Natalia Dubovcova and Dominika Nestarcova of the Slovak Republic.
In a meeting of tandems that will be participating in the 2015 FIVB "senior" World Championships (June 26-July 5) in The Netherlands, Dutch qualifiers Braakman and Sinnema posted a 2-1 (18-21, 21-17, 16-14) over 13th-seeded Martina Bonnerova and Barbora Hermannova of the Czech Republic. Braakman will be seeded 46th (Pool C) in the world championships and the Czech women are 21st (Pool D).
"We are a new team and we are still, learning to play with each other," said Hochevar, who will be celebrating her 34th birthday next week. "After losing in the qualifier in Lucerne last Tuesday (May 12), we played later in the week in a German tour event at Hamburg and started to gel as a team. We are thrilled with our win against a more-experienced team like the Slovak ladies. We still must win another match to guarantee advancing from our pool."
Hochevar and McGuire play a Thursday afternoon match against 12th-seeded Sayaka Mizoe and Takemi Nishibori of Japan before concluding their Pool E schedule Thursday morning against 21st-seeded Norisbeth Agudo and Olaya Pazo from Venezuela. The Japanese defeated the Venezuelans in two sets Thursday morning.
Braakman and Sinnema, who ousted teams from the Czech Republic and Russia in the qualifier, completed Pool D play against a pair of Brazilian teams. The Dutch challenge the fourth-seeded Salgado sisters (Carolina and Maria Clara) later Thursday before meeting 20th-seed Carolina Horta and Liliane Maestrini. The Salgados posted a come-from-behind 2-1 win over their Brazilian rivals.
Featuring women’s competition for the second-straight season, the sixth annual Prague Open continues through Sunday on the sands of Stvanice Stadium. After two rounds of pool play Thursday, the 32-team Prague Open Main Draw schedule will have the final pool play round Friday mid-day followed by an afternoon elimination round where the second- and third-place finishers in group play compete for a spot in the “Sweet 16”.
The pool winners earn an elimination “bye” and will play their first elimination matches starting at 10 a.m. Saturday. The third women’s event on the 2015 FIVB World Tour calendar, the Prague Open concludes Sunday with the playing of the semi-final and medal matches.
The semi-finals will be played at 11 a.m. followed by the third-place match at 3 p.m. and the gold medal finale at 4 p.m. The winning team will share the $11,000 first-place prize with $8,000 for second, $6,000 for third and $4,500 for fourth-place. This week’s stop is also the third women’s qualifying event for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.