Apeldoorn, Netherlands, June 30, 2015 – Women’s teams from the Slovak Republic and the United States won their third and final pool play matches in Apeldoorn Tuesday to join Monday’s winner from Brazil for Wednesday’s start of the single-elimination knockout rounds the internationally-televised double-gender $1,000,000 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships the Netherlands 2015.
Featuring the world’s best players, this global biannual tournament is being anchored in The Hague, with pool play and three elimination rounds also being played in Amsterdam, Apeldoorn and Rotterdam.
A total of 48 women’s and 48 men’s teams have been split into 12 four-team pools for three rounds of pool play with plenty of promising matchups in 144 group matches among 12, four-team pools with three pools per gender in each city.
APELDOORN WOMEN’S POOL POWER
The last two of three women’s pools playing in Apeldoorn finished round-robin play on Tuesday prior to this afternoon’s Drawing of Lots to determine bracket and venue placement for the knockout, single-elimination phase of the FIVB World Championships. The winners of each pool will remain in the city they started in for the elimination rounds up through the quarterfinals.
The women’s field is being reduced from 48 to 32 as the top two finishers in each pool along with the best eight of 12 third place finishers will advance to Wednesday’s start of the single-elimination knockout rounds in the four championship cities.
The final two of three pools in each gender playing in Apeldoorn finished round-robin play on Tuesday, prior to the Drawing of Lots to determine bracket and venue placement for the knockout, single-elimination phase of the FIVB World Championships. The winners of each pool will remain in the city they started in for the elimination rounds up through the quarterfinals on Thursday.
With unblemished 3-0 records, winning their women’s pools in Apeldoorn on Tuesday were Slovak Republic’s 14th-seeded Natalia Dubovcova/Dominika Nestarcova and USA’s third-seeded Kerri Walsh Jennings/April Ross
That pair joins Brazil’s third-seeded Agatha Bednarczuk/Barbara Seixas who clinched their pool with a 3-0 record on Monday night.
Slovak Republic’s Dubovcova/ Nestarcova won the battle of undefeated 2-0 teams Tuesday by winning in three sets over Germany’s 11th-seeded Laura Ludwig/Kira Walkenhorst, 21-15, 13-21 and 15-9 in42 minutes.
In the finale of the third pool on Tuesday in Apeldoorn, another between a pair of 2-0 teams, USA’s Kerri Walsh Jennings/April Ross powered past Canada’s 22nd-seeded Heather Bansley/Sarah Pavan in straight sets, winning 21-19, 21-13 in just 36 minutes.
All three teams will now remain in Apeldoorn for Wednesday’s start of the elimination rounds.
In the first final women’s pool play match, Slovak Republic’s Dubovcova/Nestarcova started fast and then held on to win in three sets. In the tiebreaker, Slovak Republic’s Dubovcova broke open a close set, leading 6-5 when she recorded three consecutive blocked shots and her team was ahead by at least three points until the final margin of six at 15-9.
In the second final women’s pool play match, USA’s Walsh Jennings/Ross determinedly executed their game plan although Canada’s Bansley/Pavan kept it very close in the first set. With the Canadians holding serve and the score tied at 18-18, Walsh Jennings gave the USA its first lead since early in the set with a trademark block against Canada’s Bansley. From there the Americans closed the set out with a kill and a corner shot by Walsh Jennings.
To start the second set, Canada scored first, USA tied it and then April Ross ran off three consecutive ace serves for a 4-1 lead and the Americans were on their way. USA built up to six-point margin at 14-8. Leading 18-13, USA scored on a pair of hitting errors by Canada and USA’s Walsh Jennings ended the set and match for her team with a block on the kill attempt by Canada’s Bansley.
Commented Ross following her team’s two-set win, “We prepared really well for this match, lots of credit to our coach Marcio for a great game plan that we went over this morning really well and it felt good to come out and execute and play together. It feel like we picked up right where we left off at the end of the third game against Australia last night, we're getting in rhythm more and more with each match.”
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 is being 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. There are three pools (12 teams) from each gender in each city for the three rounds of pool play. For the 32 teams that advance to the single-elimination rounds, a Drawing of Lots will be held Tuesday in The Hague to determine the bracket draw and the venue for each team. The winner’s of each pool will remain in the cities where they have been playing through the quarterfinals.
The three 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 $70,000 while the silver medalists will take home $52,000 with the bronze medalists netting $40,000 with $30,000 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
WOMEN’S RESULTS – Tuesday, June 30
APELDOORN (seed, players, country, score, time)
POOL C in Apeldoorn
(27) Mariafe Artacho/Nicole Laird, Australia def. (46) Rimke Braakman/Jolien Sinnema, Netherlands, 21-11, 21-15 (39)
(3) Kerri Walsh Jennings/April Ross, United States vs. (22) Heather Bansley/Sarah Pavan, Canada, 21-19, 21-13 (36)
POOL K in Apeldoorn
(35) Karolina Baran/Jagoda Gruszczynska, Poland def. (38) Natalia Alfaro/Karen Charles, Costa Rica, 17-21, 23-21 and 15-9 (49)
(14) Natalia Dubovcova/Dominika Nestarcova, Slovak Republic def. (11) Laura Ludwig/Kira Walkenhorst, Germany, 21-15, 13-21, 15-9 (42)