Qinzhou, China, October 14, 2017 – Poland’s 30th seeds Kinga Kolosinska and Katarzyna Kociolek stunned second seeds Brooke Sweat and Summer Ross of the United States in straight sets Saturday afternoon to set up a women’s final clash with Australian fifth seeds Mariafe Artacho/Taliqua Clancy at the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Qinzhou Open.
Playing their second tournament together, Kolosinska/Kociolek beat the American title favorites 21-17 and 21-18 in the first semi-final match to record their fourth straight victory in the single elimination tournament including an opening upset win over third seeds April Ross and Kelly Claes of the United States.
“It was a little bit crazy, because it's so windy and it's very hard to control the ball. But we did our best, we tried to catch every ball and finish every ball. I think we deserved to win,” said Kociolek.
“I am really exhausted right now and we are really satisfied to be in the final,” added Kolosinska, who stopped ice Ross for the match winner.
The Polish duo, who have kept saying ‘we want to win the next match’ and kept winning in the last few days, were determined to clinch the title of the three-star World Tour event in Qinzhou.
“You can trust us, we keep our words, like we said we were going to win, and we want to do it again,” Kociolek said.
In the other semi-final match, Artacho/Clancy upset top seeds and home favorites Wang Fan/Xia Xinyi 29-27 and 21-18. The first set was hotly contested as the two sides fought to ties from 17 to 27. Then Clancy had two shots in a row to claim the opener for the Australians. Trailing 19-15 in the second set, Wang/Xia ran off three points in a row to pull within 19-18, but Clancy came up big again by scoring the next two.
