Cubans Diaz and Gonzalez advance to Round of 16

VIENNA, Austria, August 3, 2017 – Cubans Nivaldo Diaz and Sergio Gonzalez are among four pairs representing NORCECA countries who advanced to the Round of 16 of the FIVB Men’s Beach Volleyball World Championship on Thursday.

Diaz and Gonzalez won their match over Austrians Robin Seidl and Tobias Winter 2-0 (21-16, 21-18).

The Canadian teams of Ben Saxton/Chaim Schalk and Sam Pedlow/Sam Schachter also advanced to the next round as also United States’ Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena.

Saxton/Schalk defeated Marco and Ernesto Grimalt of Chile 2-0 (23-21, 21-16), Pedlow/Schachter beat Italy’s Paolo Nicolai/Daniele Lupo 2-0 (21-19, 21-19) and Dalhausser/Lucena swept Alex Rangheri/Adrian Carambula of Italy 2-0 (21-18, 21-17).

Jacob Gibbs/Taylor Crabb, Theodore Brunner/Casey Patterson and Ryan Doherty/John Hyden of United States succumbed in the round of 32 as also Mexicans Juan Virgen/Lombardo Ontiveros.

Gibbs/Crabb lost to Criistopher McHugh/Damien Schumann of Australia 2-0 (21-19, 26-28), Brunner/Patterson were outdueled by Doppler/Horst of Austria 2-1 (18-21, 21-19, 15-10) and Doherty/Hyden were defeated by Janis Smedins/Aleksandrs Samoilov of Latvia 2-1 (23-21, 18-21, 15-12).

Virgen/Ontiveros lost to Poland’s Bartosz Losiak/Piotr Kantor 2-1 (21-12, 18-21, 15-9).