Vienna, Austria, August 3, 2017 - Teams from Brazil, Canada, Germany and the United States won Round of 16 matches here Thursday to advance to the women’s quarterfinals at the 2017 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships presented by A1.
Leading the field into the “Elite 8” matches are top-seeded Talita Antunes/Larissa Franca of Brazil along with the German pairs of second-seeded Chantal Laboureur/Julia Sude and fourth-seeded Laura Ludwig/Kira Walkenhorst. Joining Talita/Larissa as Brazilian quarterfinalists are ninth-seeded Maria Antonelli/Carolina Salgado.
North American pairs in the “Elite 8” are seventh-seeded Melissa Humana-Paredes/Sarah Pavan and Heather Bansley/Brandie Wilkerson from Canada and fifth-seeded Summer Ross/Brooke Sweat and Lauren Fendrick/April Ross from the United States.
Friday’s women’s schedule will feature both the quarter- and semifinal matches as Talita/Larissa will challenge Antonelli/Carolina with the winner playing the victors from the Summer/Sweat versus Ludwig/Walkenhorst match. In the bottom half of the bracket Bansley/Wilkerson will meet Fendrick/Ross while Humana-Paredes/Pavan challenge Laboureur/Sude with the winning teams meeting in the semifinals.
The $1-million FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships presented by A1 will feature 14 matches (eight men and six women) Friday at the state-of-the art venue at Donauinsel in Vienna.
A total of 216-matches will be contested over a 10-day period at the World Championships where the winning men’s and women’s teams will each split the $60,000 first-place prizes. The women’s medal matches will be played on Saturday and the men’s on Sunday. With 96 teams from 40 countries in the competition, pool play highlights the first six days of play with the featured court being the 10,000-seat Red Bull Beach Arena.
