Agadir, Morocco, July 22, 2017 – A couple of major upsets occurred during Saturday’s women’s quarterfinals at the Agadir stop on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour 2017, as teams from Japan, Paraguay, France and Switzerland advanced to Sunday’s semis.
Ninth-seeded Akiko Hasegawa and Azusa Futami from Japan were the first to break the seeding in the quarters as they battled through a three-set match against main draw leaders Megan Nagy and Marie-Christine Lapointe from Canada to claim a come-from-behind 2-1 (18-21, 21-15, 15-9) win after 49 minutes of playtime.
Later on, Paraguay’s Erika Sofia Mongelos Bobadilla and Gabriela Filippo, seeded sixth, survived two dramatic hard-fought sets to stamp a narrow 2-0 (24-22, 21-19) victory over third-seeded Lynne Beattie and Melissa Coutts from Scotland.
Erika and Filippo hug each other in celebration of victory over Scotland
In the other two quarterfinals, the higher seeds cruised to speedy straight-set wins. Switzerland’s Nicole Eiholzer and Dunja Gerson, seeded second, handed Italy’s Laura Giombini and Agata Zuccarelli a 2-0 (21-16, 21-14) shutout in the last women’s match of the day. Earlier, France’s fifth-seeded Lezana Placette and Aline Chamereau mastered a 2-0 (21-18, 21-14) victory over Colombia’s Andrea Galindo and Claudia Galindo.
Both semis on Sunday, as well as the two medal matches, will be streamed live on the
FIVB YouTube video channel. In the first semifinal on Sunday, Hasegawa and Futami will face Placette and Chamereau, starting at 09:00 local time at Plage Jour et Nuit on Morocco’s Atlantic coast. An hour later, Erika and Filippo will meet Eiholzer and Gerson for the remaining vacancy in the final. The bronze medal match is scheduled for 15:00 and the gold medal battle – for 16:00 in the afternoon.