Hamburg, Germany, August 24, 2017 - In a "surprising" women's Pool B match here Thursday at the US$800,000 SWATCH FIVB World Tour Finals, Summer Ross and Brooke Sweat of the United States scored a two-set win over the legendary Brazilian pair of Talita Antunes and Larissa Franca.
Seeded seventh in the competition, "Summer Sweat" posted a 2-0 (21-19, 24-22) in 35 minutes over the second-seeded Talita and Larissa. While the Americans were playing their first of two pool play matches, Talita and Larissa finished group action with a 0-2 record after losing Wednesday evening on the Rothenbaum Stadium center court to reigning Olympic and world champions Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst of Germany.
In the first set, "Summer Sweat" led 13-7, 14-8 and 20-16 before the Brazilian made it interesting at 21-19. In the second set, Talita and Larissa jumped out to a 10-3 and 11-5 lead before the Americans scored seven-straight points to take a 12-11 lead. Talita and Larissa had one set point at 21-20, but the Americans closed out the set by scoring four of the next five points.
"Summer Sweat" posted their first win over Talita and Larissa in three FIVB World Tour matches with the Brazilians with the previous two being in the semi-finals at the Fort Lauderdale Major in February and the gold medal match at the start of June in Moscow.
The back-to-back setbacks for Talita and Larissa marked only the fourth-time the Brazilians have had consecutive losses in 36 FIVB World Tour events together since July 2014. The previous three were at a 2014 event in the United States (Long Beach) and in 2016 at the Rio Olympic Games and the SWATCH FIVB World Tour Finals in Toronto, Canada.
"Summer Sweat" concludes Pool B action Thursday at 7 p.m. (local time) and Ludwig and Walkenhorst. The two teams have split a pair of FIVB World Tour matches with the Americans winning in Moscow and the Germans prevailing earlier this month at the FIVB World Championships in Vienna, Austria.