Doha, Qatar, October 13, 2019 – The four quarterfinal match-ups in the beach volleyball 4x4 women’s tournament at the 2019 ANOC World Beach Games were determined on Sunday, as Brazil and Canada emerged as winners of the two pools. On Monday, Brazil and Canada will play against the fourth-placed teams in the opposite pools, Gambia and Nigeria, respectively. In the other two clashes for the semifinal spots, United States will meet Vanuatu and Australia will lock horns with Czech Republic.
In the big match for the first place in Pool A, Brazil showed their class and produced an emphatic 2-0 (21-13, 21-12) shutout of the other team that had been unbeaten in the pool until that moment, USA. Fernanda Berti Alves was the best scorer of the game, hammering out 13 points for the winning side.
“It’s a new format for us. We never played 4x4 before. So we gradually started to feel each other’s game and now we are a little bit more in sync on the court, adjusting the little details,” commented one of Brazil’s big stars, Barbara Seixas, silver medallist at 2016 Olympics and 2015 world champion. “It has been real fun for us and overall a good result so far. We watched some of the games in the other pool, trying to figure out how other teams are playing. I hope we can continue at this rhythm when we meet some of them in the next stages. We are all really open-minded about this format and very motivated to continue winning.”
Earlier on Sunday, Brazil managed a 2-0 (21-18, 21-11) victory over Czech Republic, while United States mastered a 2-0 (21-14, 21-4) landslide against Nigeria. In what was de facto a direct clash for the third place in the pool, the Czechs registered their first win at Qatar 2019, a 2-0 (21-16, 21-16) straight-setter against Nigeria.
Brazil’s Carolina Horta spikes against the block of USA’s Alexandra Wheeler
In the last Pool B game, Canada built upon Kerri Smit’s five aces to pull off a 2-0 (21-18, 21-12) victory over Australia, a margin wide enough to help the North Americans overtake the Volleyroos for the first place in the final pool standings. This was Canada’s second win in the pool, after they mastered an emphatic 2-0 (21-8, 21-9) shutout of Gambia earlier on Sunday.
Australia had managed a 2-0 (21-13, 21-17) victory over Vanuatu, but finished second in the pool, with lower point ratio than that of Canada. The team from the tiny Pacific island finished their pool campaign on a high note – 2-0 (21-13, 21-19) against Gambia, enough to tie with Canada and Australia on a 2-1 win-loss record, but not enough to overtake any of them on point ratio.