Three American teams and one from Canada on way to Ostrava Elite16 main draw

Three American teams and one from Canada on way to Ostrava Elite16 main draw

OSTRAVA, Czech Republic, May 31, 2023.- American men duos of Trevor Crabb & Theodore Brunner and Miles Partain & Andrew Benesh, USA’s Terese Cannon & Sarah Sponcil and Canada’s Melissa Humana-Paredes & Brandie Wilkerson in women, earned a spot in the main draw at the 2023 Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Elite16 event in Ostrava that got underway on Wednesday with the qualification brackets.

· Watch all matches at the Beach Pro Tour Ostrava Elite16 event live on VBTV.

Cannon & Sponcil were the first team to qualify for Thursday’s main draw. After a 2-0 (21-13, 21-15) shutout of China’s Xinxin Wang & Lingdi Zhu, the Americans then faced Lithuania’s Monika Paulikiene and Aine Raupelyte, and despite the opponents’ driven performance in the first set, produced a 2-0 (22-20, 21-10) shutout.

Qualification bracket seeding leaders Melissa & Brandie were merciless in both of their matches, first cruising to a 2-0 (21-2, 21-7) blowout of Czechia’s Anna Pavelkova & Katerina Pavelkova, then hammering out a 2-0 (21-17, 21-13) sweep of Switzerland’s Esmee Bobner & Zoe Verge-Depre, to book the last vacancy in the 16-team women’s main draw.

In men, Crabb & Brunner had to deal with a match against compatriots, but in the first round, when they claimed a 2-0 (21-15, 21-16) win over fellow Americans Chaim Schalk & Tri Bourne. Their second match offered a fierce three-set battle with Austria’s Robin Seidl & Moritz Pristauz, in which Crabb & Brunner came back from a set down to squeeze out a narrow 2-1 (24-26, 21-18, 18-16) victory.

Partain & Benesh followed a similar path through the qualifier grind. First, they knocked out French hopefuls Arthur Canet & Teo Rotar with a 2-0 (21-15, 21-15) sweep, but then they had to battle back from a set down against Estonia’s Kusti Nolvak & Mart Tiisaar to stop the clocks deep into the tie-breaker overtime at a 2-1 (15-21, 21-11, 19-17) victory.

Main draw action on Thursday starts at 08:30 local time (06:30 UTC) with women’s pool play, as reigning world champions Eduarda Santos Lisboa (Duda) & Ana Patricia Ramos of Brazil take on reigning European champions Anastasija Samoilova & Tina Graudina of Latvia at centre court, while Cannon & Sponcil engage in an all-American duel with Taryn Kloth & Kristen Nuss on court 2.

Teams from NORCECA who entered the women’s main draw from the beginning are all from USA: Sara Hughes/Kelly Cheng, Kristen Nuss/Taryn Kloth, Julia Scoles/Betsi Flint.