Fort Lauderdale, USA, February 27, 2018 - Competing in a Brazilian country quota match is not what a team looks forward to. But for Carolina Horta and Taiana Lima, their 2-0 (21-18, 21-15) country quota win Monday afternoon over Brazilian rivals Josemari Alves and Liliane Maestrini proved beneficial.
Carolina and Taiana continued their winning Tuesday to earn one of eight qualifying berths to Wednesday’s opening modified pool play rounds in the 32-team Main Draw where the winning team Saturday will share the $40,000 first-place prize at the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour event.
After posting a 2-0 (21-14, 21-18) win in 35 minutes over 32nd-seeded Milena Matic/Marija Milosevic of Serbia, Carolina and Taiana advanced to the money rounds with a 2-0 (21-14, 21-16) victory in 31 minutes over 16th-seeded Shaunna Polley/Kelsie Wills of New Zealand.
“It was really important for us to play in the county quota because we are a new team and we practically don’t know each other on the court,” said the 25-year Carolina. “We had only one practice - since we went to the country quota we start learning about each other. Then with the qualification tournament as well, it gives us much better hopes for the main draw. We like the wind, it is a good factor for us and we are used to it. Most of the cities in Brazil have this kind of wind so it is an advantage for us.”
While Carolina is competing in only her 20th FIVB event, Lima is playing in her 85th World Tour tournament with six gold medals, 15 podium placements and 19 final four finishes to her credit. Lima also won two FIVB junior World Championship titles and placed second at the 2015 World Championships in the Netherlands with Fernanda Alves.
Ingrid Lunde (left) and Norwegian partner Oda Ulveseth celebrate a point in their Main Draw-qualifying win over a Swiss team Tuesday at the Fort Lauderdale Major
Other women’s teams advancing to Wednesday’s Fort Lauderdale Major Main Draw are second-seeded Victoria Bieneck/Isabel Schneider of Germany, third-seeded Svetlana Kholomina/Nadezda Makroguzova of Russia, fourth-seeded Valentyna Davidova/Ievgeniia Shchypkova of the Ukraine, eighth-seeded Sanne Keizer/Madelein Meppelink of the Netherlands, 11th-seeded Emily Day/Brittany Hochevar of the United States, 12th-seeded Jamie Broder/Taylor Pischke of Canada and 26th-seeded Ingrid Lunde/Oda Ulveseth of Norway.