Hamburg, Germany, August 24, 2017 - It was a day for the German women's team at the $800,000 Swatch Beach Volleyball FIVB World Tour Finals presented by Vodafone as the host country pairs of Laura Ludwig/Kira Walkenhorst and Chantal Laboureur/Julia Sude won matches over pairs from the United States and the Czech Republic, respectively.
With play on two courts at Rothenbaum Stadium, the German success were on the featured court where more than 6,500 fans watched the victories during the second of five days of competition in the third annual Swatch FIVB World Tour Finals.
The reigning Olympic and world champions posted a 2-0 (21-18, 21-12) win in 30 minutes over seventh-seeded Summer Ross/Brooke Sweat of the United States.
Prior to Ludwig and Walkenhorst's second Swatch win this week that resulted in a Pool B title, Laboureur and Sude used a quick start to secure the Pool A title as the German scored a 2-1 (21-8, 19-21, 15-12) win in 41 minutes over the ninth-seeded Kolocova and Kvapilova.
Also securing wins on Thursday to capture group titles were third-seeded Melissa Humana-Paredes/Sarah Pavan of Canada and fourth-seeded Agatha Bednarczuk/Eduarda "Duda" Lisboa of Brazil. All four pool winning teams advance to Friday's elimination round where each earned a bye into the quarterfinals for a guaranteed fifth-place finish in the event.
The third annual World Tour Finals continues through Sunday when the men’s final four matches will be played. The women’s medal matches will be contested on Saturday as the winning teams in each gender’s competition will split the $100,000 first-place prizes.
