Porec, Croatia, June 1, 2015 - Country quota matches for women’s teams from six nations initiated play in the inaugural SWATCH Beach Volleyball Major Series event here Monday in the heart of the colorful Croatian coastal city on the shores of the Adriatic Sea.
Advancing to Tuesday’s Poreč Major women’s 32-team qualifier were the tandems of Carolina Horta/Liliane Maestrini of Brazil, Kacie MacTavish/Caleigh Whitaker of Canada, Martina Bonnerova/Barbora Hermannova of the Czech Republic, Chantal Laboureur/Julia Sude of Germany, Julaluk Radarong/Manerat Udomchavee Thailand and Jennifer Fopma/Summer Ross of the United States.
As the sport of Beach Volleyball continues on the cutting edge of development on the global stage of professional sports, the FIVB World Tour debuts the Poreč Major this week, the first of three events in the next 45 days with other stops next week in Norway (Stavanger, June 9-14) and next month in Switzerland (Gstaad, July 7-12).
The first two events are “major” events prior to the staging of the FIVB “senior” Beach Volleyball World Championships that will start June 26 in The Netherlands with the finals set July 4 for women and July 5 for men with the medal matches to be staged in The Hague. Amsterdam, Apeldoorn and Rotterdam will be other sites for pool play and the opening rounds of elimination.
The US$800,000 Poreč Major marks the return of the international Beach Volleyball circuit to Croatia where the country’s capital of Zagreb hosted men’s events in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. The European country also was the site for two FIVB Age Group World Championships with the city of Umag hosting the U-19 championships in 2011 and the U-21 championships in 2013.
With Monday’s country quota matches finalizing the field for Tuesday’s 32-team women’s qualification tournament, the men’s competition follows the same format with preliminary matches Tuesday setting the qualifying field Wednesday’s schedule of 24 matches. Eight teams will advance to the 32-team Main Draw bracket with the women’s “money” rounds starting Wednesday and the men Thursday.
The women’s quarter-finals will be held Friday followed by the semi- finals and medal matches on Saturday. The men’s “Elite 8” matches will be playing Saturday and the “final four” matches Sunday. The winning teams in both genders will share the $57,000 first-place prizes along with gathering 800 “valuable” points that will help determine the field for the season-ending SWATCH Major Series event in the United States at Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
As the host nation, Croatia has two women’s teams pre-seeded into the main draw and two teams in the women’s qualification tournament. Croatia’s main draw teams are Maja Rosko/Antea Tadic and Tea Juric/Dalida Vernier. Women’s teams in the qualification tournament will be from Croatia will Dina Becic/Martina Matic and Ema Prenc/Valentina Vrbanc.
When the women’s Main Draw starts Wednesday, the “featured” team will be Brazilians Talita Antunes and Larissa Franca. This past Sunday in Moscow, Talita and Antunes won their fifth-straight event on the FIVB World Tour by defeating European champions Madelein Meppelink and Marleen Van Iersel of The Netherlands in the finals.
Following this and next week’s SWATCH Major Series event in Norway, the FIVB World Tour crosses the Atlantic Ocean for an event in the United States in St. Petersburg, Fla. The June schedule ends with the start of the world championships in The Netherlands.