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Cannon & Kraft, Nuss & Kloth, Stam & Schoon secure top six spots in Doha
DOHA, Qatar, December 5, 2024.- Terese Cannon & Megan Kraft, Kristen
Nuss & Taryn Kloth and Katja Stam & Raisa Schoon were the first teams to
book their spots in the Doha Finals playoffs. Whether they will advance
straight to the semifinals or move on to the quarterfinals, and who are
the other three teams to join them will be decided in the last pool
matches on Friday.
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Pool A
On Thursday, eighth-seeded Americans Cannon & Kraft achieved their third
victory in Pool A, but this time they were pushed to a tie-breaker by
fifth-seeded Xue Chen & Xia Xinyi of China. In an even game and despite
an impressive 27-point match high from Xia, the US duo emerged with
a 2-1 (21-15, 14-21, 15-12) win. Cannon & Kraft stand on top of the Pool
A standings as the only team to have collected three victories so far.
Xue & Xia are second on a 2-1 win-loss record. Earlier on Thursday, the
Chinese pair played another three-set match, but this time came out on
the winning end, 2-1 (22-20, 15-21, 15-13) against Italian wild cards
Valentina Gottardi & Reka Orsi Toth. Each of the four players in the
match reached 20+ points, but Gottardi made a solid performance on the
block with seven stuffs.
Fourth-seeded Brazilians Agatha Bednarczuk & Rebecca Cavalcanti achieved
their first victory in Doha, a 2-0 (21-16, 21-11) shutout of top-seeded
Latvians Tina Graudina & Anastasija Samoilova, with a 22-point match
high from Rebecca. Later in the day, however, they lost their last pool
match to Gottardi & Orsi Toth, also in straight sets, 2-0 (21-15, 21-17)
and finished their Pool A campaign on 1-3.
Whether or not this was the last match of Agatha’s glorious professional
career as a player will be known on Friday, when Tina & Anastasija and
Gottardi & Orsi Toth will be looking for their second wins against Xue &
Xia and Cannon & Kraft, respectively.
Pool B
Sixth-seeded Americans Nuss & Kloth and third-seeded Stam & Schoon of
the Netherlands mastered two straight-set wins each on Thursday and
secured advancement to the playoffs.
The Americans started their day with an emphatic 2-0 (21-11,
21-11) shutout of Paris 2024 Olympic silver medalists Melissa
Humana-Paredes & Brandie Wilkerson of Canada, sharing the top scorer
honors with 12 points apiece. Then Nuss put away a match-high 19 points
towards a 2-0 (21-18, 21-18) victory over Spanish Olympians Daniela
Alvarez & Tania Moreno and the American duo stayed undefeated in three
matches played so far.
Stam & Schoon finished their pool matches and collected three wins to
secure a spot among the top two in the pool. In their first match on
Thursday, the Dutch hammered out a 2-0 (21-17, 21-17) win over
second-seeded Germans Svenja Muller & Cinja Tillmann. While Schoon
impressed with six aces, Stam raised five kill blocks towards a
match-high 16 points. Stam & Schoon produced a 2-0 (21-16, 21-18) sweep
of their last match in the pool against ninth-seeded Melissa & Brandie,
with a 21-point match high from Stam.
Friday’s race for third place in the pool will be decided in the matches
between Muller & Tillmann (currently third on 1-2) and Nuss & Kloth, and
between Melissa & Brandie (also on 1-2) and winless Alvarez & Moreno.
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