Klineman & Ross claim second World Tour victory
YANGZHOU, China, October 15, 2018 – Alexandra Klineman and April
Ross of the United States earned their second FIVB Beach
Volleyball World Tour gold medal at the 4-star event in Yangzhou
since teaming up early this year.
After their tie-break win in the semifinals, the pair followed
up on Sunday with a spectacular showing and registered a 2-0
(21-19, 21-16) victory over Brazil’s Ana Patricia Silva and
Rebecca Cavalcanti in the gold medal match.
The USA pair were down in the first set but managed to overcome
the Brazilians, who struggled on a string of errors that led to
a deadlock and the eventual take over. They sided out well in
the next set and dictated the tempo to complete the championship
win.
“We had to focus on our side,” Ross said. “They served very
tough but Alix sided out very well. We just had to figure out to
get some points here and there. It was really tough to play
against them.”
They are a great physical team,” Klineman added. “We know that
they are going to push us, so we tried to be really aggressive.”
The Yangzhou gold medal win is their second gold medal this
year, since winning the gold at The Hague 4-star.
In the bronze medal match, Sara Hughes and Summer Ross defeated
Canada’s Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes 2-1 (16-21,
23-21, 15-5).
Pavan and Humana-Paredes took the first set and led in the
entire second set. The Canadians had match point but a sudden
shift in momentum allowed Hughes and Summer to tie the game and
force the tiebreaker. The Canadian side never recovered from the
second set setback, allowing the USA side to build a huge lead
to win the bronze medal.
“We wanted to win a medal,” Hughes said. “We fought for each
other and came up with a victory.” |