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Cannon & Kraft storm Doha Finals with two straight-set victories
DOHA, Qatar, December 4, 2024.- Terese Cannon & Megan Kraft made a solid
start to the Doha Finals on Wednesday. At this rookie appearance for
either of the two American players at a Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour
Finals, they produced two straight-set victories on opening day and were
the only women’s team to do so.
Watch the Doha Finals on VBTV
Pool A
Eighth-seeded Cannon & Kraft started their Pool A campaign in the Qatari
capital on Wednesday afternoon with an emphatic 2-0 (21-16,
21-10) shutout of fourth-seeded Brazilians Agatha Bednarczuk & Rebecca
Cavalcanti. Dominating both in attack and in serving, the two Americans
contributed 18 points apiece to the victory. Cannon & Kraft were just as
convincing in their second match, when they hammered out a 2-0 (21-18,
21-10) upset of top-seeded Latvians Tina Graudina & Anastasija
Samoilova. Cannon added the block as one of the team’s big weapons in
this match, raising five stuffs towards a 19-point match high.
Wednesday’s other two Pool A matches were both pushed to tie-breaker
resolutions. First, Tina & Anastasija opened their campaign with a 2-1
(19-21, 22-20, 15-11) comeback against 10th-seeded Italians
Valentina Gottardi & Reka Orsi Toth. Orsi Toth was on fire in attack
with 21 points and from the serving line with five aces. Anastasija also
spiked 21 points in offence while Tina produced six kill blocks towards
their success, facilitated by abundant Italian errors.
Agatha & Rebecca suffered a second defeat on Wednesday, this time at the
hands of fifth-seeded Xue Chen & Xia Xinyi of China. Xue’s impenetrable
block produced seven kill blocks and her serve delivered four aces,
while Xia’s offensive effort achieved a match-high 25 points towards
a 2-1 (18-21, 21-14, 15-12) comeback victory.
Pool B
Four different teams came up with one win each in Pool B on Wednesday.
After a 2-1 (21-16, 18-21, 15-9) battle, third-seeded Katja Stam & Raisa
Schoon of the Netherlands got back at the Spaniards for the Paris
Olympic eighthfinal defeat. Stam was the best scorer of the match with
22 points.
At the same time on centre court, Paris 2024 silver medalists Melissa
Humana-Paredes & Brandie Wilkerson of Canada, seeded ninth, squeezed out
a narrow 2-1 (16-21, 21-13, 17-15) comeback against second-seeded
Germans Svenja Muller & Cinja Tillmann. Later in the day, the German duo
bounced back with a 2-0 (21-18, 21-16) win over seventh-seeded Alvarez &
Moreno. In each of the two games, Muller produced a 25-point match high,
including four blocks and two aces.
Sixth-seeded Kristen Nuss & Taryn Kloth of the United States started
their Doha Finals quest with a 2-0 (21-18, 21-16) shutout of Stam &
Schoon. Kloth led the way with 22 points to her name.
Another eight women’s pool-stage matches will be played on Thursday.
Action starts at 13:00 local time (10:00 UTC).
VW Beach Pro Tour Finals in Doha: schedule and results |
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