Apeldoorn, Netherlands, July 2, 2015 – After six days and nights of dramatic pro beach volleyball winners of exciting quarterfinal matches Thursday night in always appealing Apeldoorn, one men’s and one women’s team each from Brazil will now move to the final four matches in The Hague starting Friday for the final three days of competition 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 elimination rounds through the quarterfinals also being played in Amsterdam, Apeldoorn and Rotterdam. With the field split into quarters, the amazing Apeldoorn matches were held in the purpose-built Apeldoorn Market Square stadium.
Advancing from Apledoorn to the semifinals and medal matches in The Hague are Brazil’s Alison Cerutti/Bruno Oscar Schmidt and Brazil’s Agatha Bednarczuk/Barbara Seixas.
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 with the Round of 16 and finished with the quarterfinals that determined the final four teams in each gender to move to The Hague for the final three days featuring the semifinals and medal matches.
APPELDOORN MEN’S QUARTERFINAL RESULT
Following their round of 16 victories early Thursday afternoon, winning the Apeldoorn men’s quarterfinal was Brazil’s third-seeded Cerutti/Schmidt powered past USA’s 14th-seeded Jake Gibb/Casey Patterson in two dominating sets, 21-12, 21-17 in just 34 minutes.
Brazil’s Cerutti/Schmidt came out to the sand in front of a full house at the Apeldoorn Market Square stadium and it almost seemed as if USA’s Gibb/Patterson got a bit rattled as they extended a 7-5 lead in the first set to 14-6 and then 17-8.
Making few mistakes in the match, the second set was closer for much of it as USA’s Gibb/Patterson had several uncommon hitting errors but had a 14-13 lead but Brazil’s Cerutti/Schmidt regained control with precision serving and extremely solid defense to go up 17-15 and then score four of the final six points to insure a two-set victory. The tight second set saw nine ties and the USA took it’s last lead at 14-13 on a Patterson ace serve off of Cerutti.
Following the victory, a pleased Schmidt said, “We couldn't be better, we're so stoked to finish in this amazing city getting into the final four. It couldn't be better that we're going to The Hague, we heard the center court there is amazing. But for us, here couldn't be more special, I'm going to miss so much Apeldoorn. We have been playing really well and I don’t think that the Americans were playing at their normal level tonight, especially in the first set. We were on fire tonight.”
Brazil’s Cerutti/Schmidt was 6-0 in Apeldoorn and USA’s Gibb/Patterson finish with a 5-1in Apeldoorn. Both teams are among the top teams on the FIVB World Tour and they met twice in 2014 and after tonight, Brazil has won all three matches. The first two meetings 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 16th 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 was 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, was playing in his 96th FIVB event and he has six gold medals and Patterson was 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 RESULT
After winning their round of 16 victories Thursday afternoon, capturing the Apeldoorn women’s quarterfinal Thursday evening was Brazil’s sixth-seeded Agatha Bednarczuk/Barbara Seixas who held off the committed charge of China’s 12th-seeded Fan Wang/Yuan Yue, winning in two sets, 21-18, 23-21 in 45 minutes.
In the first set, Brazil’s Bednarczuk/Seixas trailed 6-7, took a lead at 14-12 over China’s Wang/Yue, were ahead at 17-16 and then lit up the evening by scoring four of the next six points for a three-point set win.
In the second set, Brazil actually maintained a two, three and four-point lead at 7-5, 14-11 and 17-13 before China battled back to tie the score at 20-20 and 21-21 before Brazil scored the final two points to secure the set and the match. The final play saw Bednarczuk sky at the net to block a Wang shot.
Relishing in the victory, Seixas said, “We are feeling so happy and so grateful right now. First because we won this very difficult match and we're into the semifinals, so it's very important for us, our team, our staff, everyone who is helping us improve so much. And second, we love this city and the people were very kind to us and did an awesome job, everybody taking care of us, making sure everything was okay. So we'd like to thank a lot for everyone here, the organization, the volunteers, everybody.
Bednarczuk also commented afterwards, “My partner played very well today, she helped me so much and this is what I love in our team because we help each other every time during the game, we are together if we won, if we lost and today I would like to tell her that she won this match for us. The Chinese team is young and talented and they have beaten us before, but not tonight.”
This was the third meeting between the two teams and Brazil’s Bednarczuk/Seixas are now 2-1 in the series. In the first two meetings between the two teams, China’s Wang/Yue won in three sets in 2014 FIVB Shanghai Grand Slam and Brazil’s Bednarczuk/Seixas won in two sets in the 2012 FIVB Sanya Open. In this year’s FIVB World Championships, Brazil’s Bednarczuk/Seixas are 6-0 and China’s Wang/Yue finished 4-2 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, were playing in their 23rd FIVB event as a team with two silver medals and three fourth place finishes. Individually, Wang was playing in her 49th FIVB event and Yue was 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.
FORMAT
With a total of 96 tandems (48 in each gender), two-person teams have been 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 were 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 were 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)
(3) Alison Cerutti/Bruno Oscar Schmidt, Brazil def. (14) Jake Gibb/Casey Patterson, United States, 21-12, 21-17 (34)
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)
(6) Agatha Bednarczuk/Barbara Seixas, Brazil def. (12) Fan Wang/Yuan Yue, China, 21-18, 23-21 (45)