Top Seeds in Xiamen Qualifiers Earn Tiebreak Wins to Advance to Women’s Main Draw

The two top-seeded teams in Wednesday’s women’s qualifications at the Xiamen Challenge – France’s Lezana Placette and Alexia Richard and Germany’s Linda Bock and Louisa Lippmann – played only one game each on the way to the main draw, but had to persevere through three-set battles before booking their spots among the 32 teams in the pool stage. Two teams from USA, one each from Canada, Lithuania and Ukraine, and one more from Germany also advanced to the women’s main draw at the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour event in China, all of them starting directly from the second qualification round as well.

Top Seeds Battle Through

After going through the first qualifier round with a bye, the number one seed in the qualification bracket, Paris 2024 Olympians Lezana Placette and Alexia Richard, had to come back from a set down in a tight battle with Romania’s Beata Vaida and Francesca Alupei to emerge with a 2-1 (20-22, 21-19, 15-10) victory. Richard put away seven kill blocks and three aces towards a 27-point match high, while Alupei impressed with nine kill blocks and four aces for the Romanian side.

The second-seeded pairing of another Paris 2024 Olympian, Louisa Lippmann, with Linda Bock also started their Xiamen campaign directly from the deciding second qualification round. The German duo overcame the resistance of China’s Aheidan Mushajiang and Kadeliye Halaiti to claim a 2-1 (21-17, 17-21, 15-10) win. Bock led the way with 25 points, including two aces, while Kadeliye delivered four aces and seven kill blocks.

Straight Sets Winners

The next four seeds swept their matches in straight sets:

• Number three, Marie-Alex Belanger and Lea Monkhouse of Canada, mastered a 2-0 (21-13, 21-14) shutout of their game against Japan’s Riko Tsujimura and Takemi Nishibori.
• Number four, Daniele Kvedaraite and Jekaterina Kovalskaja of Lithuania, produced a 2-0 (21-16, 21-18) victory over USA’s Nicole Reinking and Cecilia Agraz.
• Number five, Lea Kunst and Melanie Paul of Germany, hammered out a 2-0 (21-14, 21-16) win over Switzerland’s Menia Bentele and Annique Niederhauser.
• Number six, Savannah Simo and Abby Van Winkle of the United States, put together a merciless 2-0 (21-8, 21-12) landslide over Canada’s Amy Ozee and Kaylee Glagau.

Other Results

Eighth-seeded Americans Piper Ferch and Madison Shields had a three-set encounter with ninth-seeded compatriots Carly Kan and Devanne Sours and celebrated a 2-1 (21-18, 16-21, 15-12) win in the end.

10th-seeded Yeva Serdiuk and Daria Romaniuk of Ukraine were the lowest ranked team to go through the qualifiers successfully. In their only match on Wednesday, they achieved a 2-0 (21-16, 21-16) upset of seventh-seeded Shaunna Polley and Olivia MacDonald of New Zealand.

Women’s main draw action in Xiamen will get underway on Thursday morning at 09:00 local time (01:00 UTC).

Photo credit: volleyballworld.com