Prague, Czech Republic, May 23, 2015 - Another podium sweep for Brazil on the FIVB World Tour is in the making as three women’s teams from the South American country captured opening elimination matches here Saturday at this week’s international Beach Volleyball event in the Czech Republic capital on the sands of Stvanice Stadium.
Standing in the way of the “Brazilian Beach Party” Stvanice Stadium podium are pairs from the Canada, Finland, Germany, Spain and the United States as the US$75,000 Prague Open concludes with Saturday afternoon quarter-final matches followed by Sunday’s semi-final and medal contests for the third women’s event on the 2015 FIVB World Tour calendar.
Brazilians advancing to Saturday’s quarterfinals captured second-round elimination matches earlier in the day are second-seeded Agatha Bednarczuk/Barbara Seixas, the fourth-seeded Salgado sisters (Carolina and Maria Clara) and 24th-seeded Eduarda Lisboa/Elize Maia. Each Brazilian team had a “bye” to Saturday’s schedule after winning their pools Friday.
Other teams capturing opening matches Saturday were third-seeded Chantal Laboureur/Julia Sude of Germany, seventh-seeded Heather Bansley/Sarah Pavan of Canada, 16th-seeded Taru Lahti/Riikka Lehtonen of Finland, 23rd-seeded Jennifer Fopma/Summer Ross of the United States and 26th-seeded Angela Lobato/Paula Soria of Spain.
All the Brazilian opening wins Saturday went as expected as Agatha and Seixas had to rally to win a three-setter over the 22nd-seeded Barbara Hansel and Stefanie Schwaiger of Austria. Trailing most of the first set, Agatha and Seixas out-lasted the Austrians 27-25 for the win. After Hansel and Schwaiger won the second set 21-17, the Brazilians took command of the third set early and won 15-9.
“That was a very tough match,” said the 31-year old Agatha. “The Austrians are very experienced and are becoming a very good team. We were fortunate to come-from-behind in the first set and played a lot better in the third set to win the match.”
The Brazilians are glad to be playing in Prague in preparation for next week’s Grand Slam stop in Russia. “It is good to come here and play some very good competition before Moscow,” said the 28-year old Seixas. “Winning and playing very well here is important before we start competing in the next three events in Moscow, Croatia and Norway.”
The Salgados three-set win over top-seeded Kristyna Kolocova and Marketa Slukova of the Czech Republic eliminated the defending champions from the Prague Open. Kolocova and Slukova won their first of two FIVB World Tour gold medals at last year’s event by defeating a team from Germany.
The last time three Brazilian women’s teams captured all three podium spots in a FIVB World Tour stop was last August in the Austrian Grand Slam where Agatha and Seixas claimed the bronze medal. With the Prague Open being the 280th event since the start of women’s play on the FIVB World Tour in 1992, Brazil will be seeking to send three teams to a semi-final for the 44th-time.
The South American country has captured all three places at a women’s FIVB World Tour event 21 times. Brazil has had a team in 200 of the previous 279 gold medal matches with 50 being All-Brazilian affairs. Brazilian women have compiled 366 world tour medals and topped the podium 137 times.
FIRST-TIMERSAdvancing to the Prague Open quarter-finals for the pairs of Eduarda/Elize Maia, Bansley/Pavan, Lahti/Lehtonen, Fopma/Ross and Lobato/Soria will provide each team with an opportunity to advance to their first-ever FIVB World Tour “final four” together.