6th WUC Beach Volleyball: Play-offs

MACEIÓ – Thursday September 13^th, marked the beginning of the play-off matches of the 6^th World University Beach Volleyball Championship in Maceió (AL). After more than 60 games for the classification round, the pairs went on the court seeking for a spot in the knock-out round of the tournament.

In the women’s competition Laboureur/Schumacher (GER), Dubovcova/Nestracova (SVK), Bonnerova/Hermannova (CZE), Mersmann/Tillmann (GER), Ross/Day (USA) and Pauline/Rachel (BRA) were first placed in their groups and start as bye in the first round of the playoffs.

In the men’s tournament, Luciano/Alvaro (BRA), Garcia/Marco (ESP), Bergmann/Stiel (GER), Lenc/Pridal (CZE) and Catschegn/Buhler (SUI) also secured the first place in the group stage.

The second pairs (M & W) of Brazil played on Wednesday (13/09). Julia and Luana faced the Portuguese team Oliveira and Resende and won 2-0. Vinicius and Raphael played the Polish team Kantor/Kujawiak, one of the favorites for the title, and lost in the tie-brake. “It was a defeat that strengthened our duo. We trailed behind, won the second set and details made us loose the game. But we are growing in the competition, it is Raphael’s first tournament and everything is new. But let’s keep calm, we’re still alive in the WUC and excited for the next game”, said Vinicius, 4th place at the 2010 WUC in Turkey, alongside Luciano.

The Austrian duo Kunert/Petutschnig ended the round this Thursday (13/09) in the main court against the Japanese Takahashi/Murakami and marked the first victory towards the playoffs. “Yesterday we played better. Today we made more mistakes, but the competition system allows us to grow and be more concentrated for decisive matches”, said Kunert. In April, he and his partner trained a month in Rio de Janeiro and played the FIVB World Championship in Brasília, ending in 17th position.

(Source: Pollyanna Pádua – Photos: Thiago Parmalat)

RESULTS

News Bulletin N°5