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Beach volleyball 02/11/2013

USA's Day/Ross eye gold at the Phuket Open

Phuket, Thailand, November 2, 2013 – USA’s Emily Day
and Summer Ross and Chinese pair Chen Xue and Xinyi Xia make up the final of
the 2013 FIVB Beach Volleyball Phuket Open on Sunday. The
penultimate FIVB Open of the season running from October 29 to November 3,
the event is back in Thailand for an eight consecutive year.

Day/Ross were the first
semifinal in Phuket, where they faced Brazil’s Agatha
Bednarczuk and Maria Antonelli in an evenly matched showdown. Given half a
chance Day powerfully finished almost every ball that came her way and paired
with Ross’s placement control, the USA finally took the match 2-1 (21-19, 20-22, 15-12).

Going
for gold

Meeting Brazil’s Agatha/Antonelli is never going to be an
easy task. No one could argue with the balls from Brazil that
earned them the second set. However, it was another of Day’s strong slams that
gave USA their ticket to the final and becomes Day/Summer’s best ever result,
finishing fourth in the Long Beach Grand Slam.

“We feel pretty awesome, on cloud nine. I mean it’s so really
hot out here we’re just trying to get through each match and play each point,” said
Day.

“It was so hard, the sun was beating down, but I don’t
know somehow we pulled it out. We had some good setting in transition and that
really helped us,” said Ross.

We’re so stoked, we wanted to end the season on a high
and this is it,”

Day/Ross had a challenging match in the morning to
reach the semifinal, against Rimke Braakman and Jantine van der Vlist from the
Netherlands. The USA was slow to find their rhythm taking the match to three
sets 2-1 (18-21, 21-19, 15-8).

“That was another hard long match, we went three with
the Netherlands, they’re a great team they played really hard. It’s just an
absolute fight every time we play,” said Day.

Day/Ross now face Xue/X. Y. Xia in the final on Sunday and
have only one outcome in mind.

“We had a goal coming here to win gold so that’s what
we’re going to do,” said Day

Xue
back in Phuket

In the second semifinal, Xue/X. Y. Xia met Brazil’s Maria Clara Salgado Rufino
and Carolina Solberg in another very even match-up, each team answering the
other with similar force and determination 2-1 (21-16, 17-21, 20-18).

The end of the first set was dominated by China who
streaked ahead from 16-16 to end the set 21-16. In the second, some huge Xue
blocks and amazing Brazilian saves made it unclear which way the set would
swing, but Carol’s block of X. Y. Xia
closed the set for Brazil 21-17.

Some beautifully placed balls
by Maria Clara helped a run of points midway through the third, but strong play
by X.Y.Xia took the set to match point. Unfazed, Brazil replied each match
point all the way to 20-18 with an unfortunate ball out.

Chen Xue has won gold in Phuket twice before, in 2006
and 2011 with partner Zhang Xi, but joins Xia Xinyi in Phuket in only their
second outing together after finishing ninth in Xiamen Grand Slam last week.

“I am the older girl in our team. Xinyi is the new girl
and we don’t have much experience with the two of us playing together. We just
play one ball by one ball and if we lost we didn’t think too much,” said Xue.

It is so hot here and China is already colder now. But we
are just like everybody else here and I’m OK with that.”

Of course Phuket is a lucky place for us, for China.”

X.Y.Xia is only sixteen year
old and playing her first season of beach volleyball this year.

“I am like a student of Xue Chen and I am learning from
her. I need to work on improving myself and also our teamwork. I need to work
to learn more because I haven’t been playing for very long,” said X.Y.Xia.

“I think our partnership will be better and better. We
still have a lot of problems to solve, but we are optimistic,” said Xue.

The Chinese pair are ready to face Day/Ross in the
final on Sunday and Xue/X. Y. Xia are as determined as the USA.

“We will fight to the end,” said Xue.

The bronze medal is guaranteed for Brazil in Phuket as Agatha/Antonelli
and Maria
Clara/Carol will be the first match on court on Sunday at 15:35 local time.

Thailand has hosted over 10 women’s and one men’s FIVB
tournament. Overall, the USA has been the most successful with 10 medal
finishes in the seven FIVB World Tour events held in Phuket.

The tournament
previously ran from 2006 until 2011, when the event moved to Bangsaen in 2012.
China’s Chen Xue and Zhang Xi won the 2011 edition, while Jennifer Kessy and
April Ross were victorious in 2012.

Phuket
is an island located to the south of Thailand, while the city of Phuket is the
island’s capital and home to 75,000 people. It is located 825 kilometres from
Bangkok, the capital of Thailand.

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