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CANCÚN, México, April 17, 2021 - Lidiannis
‘Lidy’ Echeverria and Yanisleidis Sanchez were
handed arguably the toughest draw in the women’s
qualifier of the first of three FIVB Beach
Volleyball World Tour 4-star events in Cancun,
Mexico.
The Cubans, however, powered through the
obstacles and qualified for the main draw of the
first international tournament they play. Both
25, Lidy and Sanchez started against Zoe Verge-Depre
and Esmee Bobner, who had advanced from the
qualifier at the 4-star event in Doha. The
Caribbean’s were dominant and secured a 2-0
(21-18, 21-13) victory against the Swiss.
In their second match, the 12th-seeded Lidy and
Sanchez faced fourth-seeded Marleen van Iersel,
a two-time Olympian, and Pleun Ypma, from the
Netherlands. It was a hard-fought battle, but
the Cubans were on the right side of it, winning
2-1 (18-21, 24-22, 16-14) to qualify.
“We knew it would be a very difficult match,”
said Lidy, who finished ninth at the 2017 FIVB
World Championship with former partner Leila
Martinez. “They’re very well-positioned in the
world ranking and we had watched their film. I
believe they didn’t have as much information
about us and we tried to use it as an advantage.
We played with everything we had and approached
it like a real battle.”
The Cubans have very limited international
experience with Lidy appearing in just the third
World Tour event of her career and Sanchez
making her international debut in Cancun. The
pair secured three silver medals on the NORCECA
Tour in 2019 but are still looking for their
breakthrough moment at the top level.
In Cancun, they will have the opportunity to do
that.
“When we heard about these events closer to
home, we knew it would be a great opportunity
for us,” added Sanchez, who played the second
and third sets of the match against the Dutch
with a foot injury. “I had never played in an
event of this level and we had very few entry
points, so the most important thing for us was
qualifying and we’re very happy that we managed
to do that.”
Cuba managed to have another team qualify for
the main draw as Lidy’s former partner Leila and
her current teammate Maylen Deliz also won a
pair of matches to move from the qualifier to
the main draw.
The Cubans upset Canadians Julie Gordon and
Shanice Marcelle 2-0 (21-19, 21-7) in their
first match and followed that up with another
two-set (21-10, 21-15) win against Norwegians
Emilie Olimstad and Ane Tveit Hjortland.
Besides the Cubans, the following teams have
also advanced to the main draw: Brazil’s Taina
Bigi/Victoria Lopes, Greece’s Vasiliki
Arvaniti/Penny Karagkouni, Japan’s Yurika
Sakaguchi/Chiyo Sukuki, Spain's Maria
Carro/Paula Soria, the Czech Republic's Michala
Kvapilova/Michaela Kubickova and Germany's Kim
Behrens/Sandra Ittlinger. |
