Americans Ross and Sweat win bronze at Fort Lauderdale

FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida., USA, March 3, 2018 – Before Beach Volleyball power Brazil had two teams vie for women’s gold medal here Saturday afternoon at the US$600,000 Fort Lauderdale Major, Germany and the United States competed for the bronze medal with host country favorites Summer Ross and Brooke Sweat earning the third spot on the FIVB World Tour podium.

Competing in their second-straight Fort Lauderdale Major “final four” after losing the third-place in 2017 to a team from Germany, the 13th-seeded Americans posted a 2-0 (21-17, 21-13) win in 32 minutes over 24th-seeded qualifiers Victoria Bieneck and Isabel Schneider of Germany.

In the battle for the gold medal, Barbara Seixas and Fernanda Alves went from pain to gold while Taiana Lima and Carol Horta went from nowhere to silver.

Barbara and Fernanda, playing in their 11th FIVB World Tour event together, fended off their fellow Brazilians Saturday to capture the gold medal in the Fort Lauderdale Major.

Seeded ninth, Barbara and Fernanda scored a 21-16, 21-13 victory to cap a week in which they went undefeated in six matches and dropped only two sets along the way.

Barbara and Fernanda split the top prize of US$40,000 and Taiana and Carol shared the US$32,000 second-place prize.