Apeldoorn, Netherlands, July 2, 2015 – Down to the final day at three of the four venues including here in alluring Apeldoorn, men’s teams from Brazil and the United States along with women’s teams from Brazil and China won their round of 16 matches Thursday to advance to tonight’s quarterfinals in the Market Square stadium at the internationally-televised double-gender $1,000,000 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships the Netherlands 2015. The men’s Apeldoorn quarterfinal will start at 7 p.m. local time followed immediately by the women’s Apeldoorn quarterfinal.
Featuring the world’s best players, this global biannual tournament is being anchored in The Hague, with pool play and elimination rounds through the quarterfinals also being played in Amsterdam, Apeldoorn and Rotterdam.
Following the end of pool play, the top 32 women’s and 32 men’s teams from the original 48 per gender started the knockout rounds Wednesday with eight teams per gender in each city. Thursday’s schedule started the Round of 16 and finishes with the quarterfinals for before the final four teams in each gender move to The Hague for the final three days featuring the semifinals and medal matches.
APPELDOORN MEN’S QUARTERFINAL MATCHUP
Following their round of 16 victories early Thursday afternoon, meeting in the Apeldoorn men’s quarterfinal will be USA’s 14th-seeded Jake Gibb/Casey Patterson playing against Brazil’s third-seeded Alison Cerutti/Bruno Oscar Schmidt.
The winners of Thursday afternoon’s men’s Apeldoorn round of 16 matches will meet Thursday evening in the men’s Apeldoorn quarterfinal with the winner advancing to The Hague for the semifinals and medal matches.
Brazil’s Cerutti/Schmidt, and USA’s Gibb/Patterson, both 5-0 in Apeldoorn, are stars on the FIVB World Tour and they met twice in 2014 with Brazil winning both matches. Both were in 2014 with Brazil winning in three sets in The Hague and two sets in the FIVB Gstaad Grand Slam.
This is Brazil’s Cerutti/Schmidt 16 FIVB international event together and they have one gold, two silvers, one bronze and two fourth place finishes. Overall, Brazil’s Cerutti has played in 90 FIVB events with 12 gold medals while Schmidt has played in 92 and has five gold medals.
For USA’s Gibb Patterson, this is their 26th FIVB international event together and they have won two gold medals, one silver, two bronze and one fourth place finish. Overall, USA’s Gibb, who won the FIVB World Tour point championship in both 2013 and 2014 with Sean Rosenthal, is playing in his 96th FIVB event and he has six gold medals and Patterson is playing in his 35th and he has won two gold medals.
The losing team in the men’s Apeldoorn quarterfinal leaves the Netherlands with an official fifth-place finish and $18,000 in prize money in the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships the Netherlands 2015.
APPELDOORN WOMEN’S QUARTERFINAL MATCHUP
Fresh from their round of 16 victories Thursday afternoon, meeting in the Apeldoorn women’s quarterfinal will be Brazil’s sixth-seeded Agatha Bednarczuk/Barbara Seixas meeting China’s 12th-seeded Fan Wang/Yuan Yue.
The winners of Thursday afternoon’s women’s Apeldoorn round of 16 matches will meet Thursday evening in the women’s Apeldoorn quarterfinal with the winner advancing to The Hague for the semifinals and medal matches.
This will be the third meeting between the two teams with China’s Wang/Yue winning in three sets in 2014 FIVB Shanghai Grand Slam and Brazil’s Bednarczuk/Seixas winning in two sets in the 2012 FIVB Sanya Open. In this year’s FIVB World Championships, Brazil’s Bednarczuk/Seixas are 5-0 and China’s Wang/Yue are 4-1 in the championships.
Brazil’s Bednarczuk/Seixas are playing in their 27th FIVB international event as a team with three gold medals, two silver medals and three bronze medals. Individually overall, this is Bednarczuk’s 82nd FIVB international event with three gold medals and Seixas is playing in her 47th and she has three gold medals as well.
China’s youthful team, Wang is 21 and Yue is 27, are playing in their 23rd FIVB event as a team with two silver medals and three fourth place finishes. Individually, Wang is playing in her 49th FIVB event and Yue is playing in her 66th tournament.
The losing team in the women’s Apeldoorn quarterfinal leaves the Netherlands with an official fifth-place finish and $18,000 in prize money in the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships the Netherlands 2015.
APELDOORN MEN’S ROUND OF 16 RESULTS
Moving forward to the men’s Apeldoorn quarterfinal on Thursday night after their round of 16 wins earlier in the afternoon were USA’s Jake Gibb/Casey Patterson and Brazil’s Alison Cerutti/Bruno Oscar Schmidt.
In the men’s first elimination round of 16 on the Apeldoorn Market Square stadium, USA’s 14th-seeded Gibb/Patterson seemed fired up early and often as they handled Canada’s 21st-seeded Josh Binstock/Sam Schachter in straight sets, 21-13, 21-14 in 33 minutes.
In the second men’s round of 16 match Brazil’s third-seeded Cerutti/Schmidt defeated Australia’s 23rd-seeded Isaac Kapa/Christopher McHugh in two sets, 21-15, 21-17 in 39 minutes.
After the match, Gibb said, “Fun match against Canada. Those guys are great players and they've had a great year. We just happened to come out on top. Nothing really special on our side we just kind of groveled and we like winning that way.”
Gibb’s USA teammate Patterson commented, “A lot of good energy today from the crowd again, a bunch of kids from I think a local school, so it was a blast, a lot of good energy, we love it here in Apeldoorn.”
The losing teams in Apeldoorn’s men’s round of 16 leave the Netherlands with official ninth-place finishes and $11,000 in prize money in the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships the Netherlands 2015.
APELDOORN WOMEN’S ROUND OF 16 RESULTS
Moving forward from the women’s Apeldoorn round of 16 matches Thursday were Brazil’s Agatha Bednarczuk/Barbara Seixas and China’s Fan Wang/Yuan Yue.
Starting the day’s women’s action on the Apeldoorn Market Square stadium court where temperatures soared to near the 100-degree mark under glistening sunshine, Brazil’s third-seeded Bednarczuk/Seixas upended Canada’s 24th-seeded Humana-Paredes/Pischke in two sets, 21-15, 21-14 in 36 minutes.
In the second and final women’s Apeldoorn round of 16 match, China’s 12th-seeded Wang/Yue upset USA’s third-seeded Walsh Jennings/Ross, 21-19, 17-21 and 15-13 in 53 minutes.
After her duos victory, Seixas said, “We want to congratulate the Canadians because they have had a great year and they've played excellent matches against other teams so we knew we had to pay extreme attention to what we were doing and really have some patience. We knew it was going to be hard with some defenses and some kills also, but we are happy. The weather is so nice now for Brazilians, very hot and sunny, so it's very good for us to play in this, despite the sand being hot, but it’s ok with us. It’s the way we like it.”
In the second women’s match, China avenged two losses to the Americans suffered at this year’s FIVB Fuzhou Open in China. After exchanging sets, the tiebreaker was close early then the Chinese actually pulled out to a five-point lead at 14-9 when the American’s rallied with four straight points before a Wang kill down the middle from the right side ended the set and match. Wang had two key blocks in the tiebreaker set.
The losing teams in Apeldoorn’s women’s round of 16 leave the Netherlands with official ninth-place finishes and $11,000 in prize money.
FORMAT
With a total of 96 tandems (48 in each gender), two-person teams are competing for part of a $1 million purse as the Netherlands hosts an FIVB international event for the sixth consecutive year. Anchored in The Hague round-robin Pool Play was played in The Hague, Amsterdam, Apeldoorn and Rotterdam along with the first three rounds of elimination play for the 32 teams remaining per gender following three rounds of pool play.
The elimination rounds through the quarterfinals will be held in each of the four participating cities. The quarterfinal winners in each gender will move to The Hague after Thursday’s matches. The women’s semifinals will be on Friday and the women’s medal matches will be held on Saturday. The men’s semifinals will be played Saturday and the men’s medal matches will be played on Sunday.
PURSE
The gold medal winning teams in each gender will earn $60,000 while the silver medalists will take home $45,000 with the bronze medalists netting $35,000 with $28,000 going to the fourth place finishers.
VENUE
All matches in Apeldoorn are being played on Market Square. A purpose-built stadium with a capacity of 2,000 seats was erected on the atmospheric square in the city centre. Market Square is overlooked by the modern town hall and is surrounded by shops, bars and restaurants.
2015 FIVB BEACH VOLLEYBALL WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
The Hague, Amsterdam, Apeldoorn, Rotterdam – Netherlands
MEN’S RESULTS – Thursday, July 2
Market Square Stadium – Apeldoorn, Netherlands
APELDOORN Round of 16 (Time, seed, players, country)
(14) Jake Gibb/Casey Patterson, United States def. (21) Josh Binstock/Sam Schachter, Canada, 21-13, 21-14 (33 minutes)
(3) Alison Cerutti/Bruno Oscar Schmidt, Brazil def. (23) Isaac Kapa/Christopher McHugh, Australia, 21-15, 21-17 (39)
APELDOORN QUARTERFINAL (Time, seed, players, country)
7 p.m. -- (3) Alison Cerutti/Bruno Oscar Schmidt, Brazil vs. (14) Jake Gibb/Casey Patterson, United States
2015 FIVB BEACH VOLLEYBALL WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
The Hague, Amsterdam, Apeldoorn, Rotterdam – Netherlands
WOMEN’S RESULTS – Thursday, July 2
Market Square Stadium – Apeldoorn, Netherlands
APELDOORN Round of 16 (Time, seed, players, country)
(6) Agatha Bednarczuk/Barbara Seixas, Brazil def. (24) Melissa Humana-Paredes/Taylor Pischke, Canada, 21-15, 21-14 (36)
(12) Fan Wang/Yuan Yue, China def. (3) Kerri Walsh Jennings/April Ross, United States, 21-19, 17-21 and 15-13 (53)
APELDOORN QUARTERFINAL (Time, seed, players, country)
8 p.m. -- (6) Agatha Bednarczuk/Barbara Seixas, Brazil vs. (12) Fan Wang/Yuan Yue, China