(Photo FIVB)
Five girls’ pairs and three boys’ pairs qualified for the knockout stages with perfect records at the FIVB Beach Volleyball Under 18 World Championship in Doha, Qatar.
The top three teams in each of the eight pools qualified to the elimination rounds – the eight pool winners go directly to the Round of 16, while the teams that finished second and third play in the Round of 24.
Two American girls’ pairs – Jordyn Scribner-Ella Grimes and Avery Junk-Addison Junk won their matches in straight sets to finish top of Pool A and Pool B respectively with six points.
Switzerland’s Anja Gähwiler-Noemi Eugster in Pool E, the Netherlands’ Esmee Radstake-Jara Both in Pool C and Canada’s Ruby Cochrane-Sophie Hancock in Pool H—also maintained their flawless run to storm the Round of 16 with maximum six points from a 3-0 win-loss record.
“We played some tough games in the pool against European teams which worked in our favour because we knew what to expect from them. We are happy that we have qualified directly to the Round of 16. It gives us an opportunity to watch our opponents as they play in the Round of 24,” said Radstake of the Netherlands.
“Our target is to go further than the European Championship where we finished ninth. We are ready to give our best and fight to go past the quarterfinals at least,” added her partner Both.
The other group leaders who claimed direct tickets to the Round of 16 were Italy’s Sofia Bruzzone-Micol Lafuenti in Pool D, Belgium’s Lente Thant-Simone Vervloet in Pool F and Germany’s Anna-Chiara Reformat-Rika Dieckmann in Pool G.
Only three teams maintained their perfect record in the boys’ competition namely; Germany’s Jonathan Bungert-Filo Wüst in Pool E, Ukraine’s Yehor Skrypnychenko-Andrii Lunkan in Pool B, and Brazil’s Thomas Mathias Endler-Felippe Prudencio Arruda Barbiero in Pool H.
The three duos all won their Thursday pool matches in straight sets to finish top of their groups on 6 points and advance to the Round of 16 with a 100% record.
Also proceeding to the Round of 16 as group leaders were Italy’s Riccardo Santomassimo & Marco Di Felice in Pool G, Chile’s José Tomas Brain Zirpel & George Hargreaves Arentsen in Pool F, Austria’s Martin Poinstingl & Paul Hohenauer in Pool D, Estonia’s Armin Kender & Patrik Parijõgi in Pool C and Türkiye’s Barış Güldali & Polat Kemal Eser in Pool A.
“We played very tough matches against good teams today and we’re happy for the two wins. Our fighting spirit was key today and we hope to carry it into the knockout phase. We want to improve on the third place finish from the European Championship and win the gold medal here,” said Marco Di Felice of Italy.
FIVB Beach Volleyball U18 World Championship: Match Schedule and Results
