Brazilian pairs upset high seeds in women and qualifiers in Joao Pessoa
Elite16 – Joao Pessoa, BRA – 2025
Four home teams, two from USA and one each from Lithuania and France qualify for the Elite main draw
Brazilian teams grabbed half of the eight main draw vacancies available through Wednesday’s women’s qualifications at the Joao Pessoa Elite on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour. Three of them upset higher seeds in the bracket to delight the home fans. Two pairs from the United States, one from Lithuania and one from France also pushed through to the 24-team main draw, serving off on Thursday morning.
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In the most interesting match of the 16-team single qualification round, 16th-seeded Flavia Moura Santos Cezar and Barbara De Sousa Alves Ferreira of Brazil achieved the only tie-breaker victory of the day, a hard-fought 2-1 (20-22, 21-17, 15-13) upset of qualification bracket leaders Xolani Hodel and Kylie Kuyava-De Berg of the United States. Barbara led the team with 20 points, including two aces. Flavia Moura chipped in with another 19, while DeBerg impressed with five kill blocks towards a match-high 27 points. Hodel also finished with 19.
14th-seeded Brazilians Verena Figueira de Oliveira and Kyce Mikaele Martins Silva also delivered a major upset, a convincing 2-0 (21-13, 21-17) shutout of third-seeded Wies Bekhuis and Emi van Driel of the Netherlands.
Ninth-seeded Carol Horta and Elize Maia were the third Brazilian team to defeat a higher-ranked opponent on Wednesday. They hammered out a 2-0 (21-14, 21-16) sweep of their qualification match against eighth-seeded Shaunna Polley and Olivia MacDonald of New Zealand.
Finally, sixth-seeded Brazilian wild cards Thainara Mylena Feitosa de Oliveira and Talita Calixto Simonetti may not have upset a higher seed, but achieved a prestigious 2-0 (21-19, 21-14) victory over Dutch Olympians Katja Stam and Raisa Schoon upon Stam’s first Beach World Tour appearance since the Doha Finals in December, after recovering from an injury.
Second-seeded Americans Corinne Quiggle and Chloe Loreen did not allow a Brazilian upset and took out 15th-seeded Andressa Cavalcanti and Taina Bigi in straight sets, 2-0 (21-17, 21-15).
Neither did fourth-seeded Lithuanian Olympians Monika Paulikiene and Aine Raupelyte, who beat Brazil’s Emanuely Pereira Cardoso and Quemile Vieira de Souza, seeded 13th, by 2-0 (21-15, 21-17).
Seventh-seeded Hailey Harward and Molly Phillips were the other team from the USA that made it successfully through the qualifiers. They claimed a 2-0 (21-19, 21-15) win over Estonia’s Heleene Hollas and Liisa Remmelg.
French Olympians Lezana Placette and Alexia Richard also earned a spot in Thursday’s main draw action. They celebrated a 2-0 (21-10, 21-16) victory over Norway’s Nina Pavlova and Sunniva Helland-Hansen.
Thursday’s women’s main draw action is set to serve off at 09:00 local time (12:00 UTC).
Photo credit: volleyballworld.com
