Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 6, 2016 - As expected, top-seeded Alison Cerutti and Bruno Oscar Schmidt delighted their home country fans by posting a two-set win over Canadians Josh Binstock and Sam Schachter here Saturday morning in the second of 12 matches to be played on the opening day of the Beach Volleyball competition at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
The reigning FIVB world champions scored a 2-0 (21-19, 22-20) Pool A win in 47 minutes over Binstock and Schachter, who advanced to the Copacabana quadrennial by securing a berth via the FIVB Continental Cup Finals in Sochi, Russia last month.
However, the victory was hard-earned by Alison and Bruno as the Canadians rallied from 9-5 and 14-10 deficits in the second set to tie the match at 17s on a block by Binstock. After ties at 18, 19 and 20, Binstock was called for a net violation and an Alison serve was misplayed by Schachter to give the Brazilians the win.
The two teams return to action Monday with Alison and Bruno playing Clemens Doppler and Alexander Horst of Austria in the afternoon session while Binstock and Schachter meet Adrian Carambula and Alex Ranghieri of Italy in the evening.