Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 9, 2016 -Talita Antunes and Larissa Franca of Brazil secured their second win at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games here Tuesday afternoon by defeating Americans Lauren Fendrick and Brooke Sweat to tie a team from Poland for the Pool A leadership.
With their 2-0 (21-16, 21-13) win in 39 minutes over Fendrick and Sweat to maintain their perfect record against the American pair in five international meetings, Talita and Larissa will play Thursday Monika Brzostek and Kinga Kolosinska of Poland for the Pool A title and the No. 1-seed in the 16-team women’s elimination bracket that starts Friday.
Brzostek and Kolosinska, who have never played Talita and Larissa internationally, posted their second win earlier Tuesday by defeating Ekaterina Birlova and Evgeniya Ukolova of Russia 2-0 (21-19, 21-18) in 39 minutes.
Talita and Larissa, who trailed only once in the match with Fendrick and Sweat, have now won 12 of 13 matches on Copacabana since last September when the pair was named to represent Brazil in the Beach Volleyball competition at the Rio “Summer” Games. The Brazilians won the Olympic “test” event last September with a 7-0 match mark before placing ninth at mid-March’s Rio Grand Slam with a 3-1 record.
The USA vs. Russia match will determine the third spot in Pool A with the winner probably playing at mid-night Thursday in one of the two “lucky losers” matches to fill the No. 15- and No. 16-seeded spots in the elimination bracket. The two teams have split four international matches with the one of Birlova and Ukolova’s win over Fendrick and Sweat at the Rio Grand Slam.
