Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 10, 2016 - Prior to competing in the beach volleyball competition at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, Louise Bawden and Taliqua Clancy wanted to forget their previous experience on Copacabana at a FIVB World Tour stop in mid-March where the Australians failed to advance from their pool and placed 25th.
Five months later, the Aussies are very excited about their experience at the 12,000-seat “Coliseu on Copacabana” after Bawden and Clancy won their third-straight match here Wednesday morning by defeating Madelein Meppelink and Marleen Van Iersel of the Netherlands 2-1 (27-25, 18-21, 16-14) in a 63-minute match that determined the winner of Pool F and the sixth-seeded for Friday and Saturday’s opening elimination rounds.
After the two teams split the first two sets, Bawden and Clancy started the decider quickly with 2-0 and 4-1 leads. The Dutch tied the set at 4s, 5s and 6s before the Aussies regained control to take 9-6 and 14-12 leads. An Aussie error and a Van Iersel attack tied the match at 14s.
With a chance to take the lead on Meppelink’s serve, Van Iersel had a fault on a Clancy attack. With their third match point and Clancy at the service line, Van Iersel had an attack go long and the Australians had secured their fourth-straight international win over the Dutch and sixth in eight overall matches between the two teams.
Despite the setback, Meppelink and Van Iersel will advance to 16-team elimination rounds as both the Dutch and Aussies defeated teams from Costa Rica and Venezuela in earlier Pool F matches. The group action concludes later Wednesday with Natalia Alfaro/Karen Charles of Costa Rica playing Norisbeth Agudo/Olaya Pazo of Venezuela. The winner of that match will play await their status for the elimination rounds.
