Beach Volley Blog

Izac Carracher & Mark Nicolaidis just keep on winning. These guys started the year by winning the Coolangatta Future tournament, but I don’t think anyone realized how soon that ‘future’ would be. Here they are a few months later in the final 16 of the World Championships. And if you think it's a fluke, think again. Their only loss in pool play came against Alison Cerrutti, as in two time World Champion and Olympic Gold medalist Alison Cerrutti. And it took Alison and Guto three sets to squeak past the young Australians. Izac and Mark proceeded to take down Brazil's answer to the future question, Renato and his partner Vitor Felipe. Those results meant Australia won their pool. And today, in the first round of the knockout phase, they got another win. This time against Norway’s lesser beachvolley vikings Mathias Berntsen & Hendrik Mol. Tomorrow they face yet another Brazilian team, but I think it is Andre Loyola & George Wanderley that should have trouble sleeping tonight with the way these Aussies are rolling.

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Switzerland’s Esmée Böbner &
Zoé Vergé-Dépré won in todays Lucky Loser national round in a thrilling battle against Cuba’s Leila and Lidy. That result puts them in a round of 32 clash with Zoe’s sister Anouk and her partner Joana Heidrich. It also means the Beach Volley Blog will continue tracking their World Championship journey as they replace the Cuban women on the blog. Read all about their day and the World Championship journey series at beachvolleyblog.net (link in bio). Photo by

The never say die combination of Paolo Nicolai and Samuelle Cottafava won the most thrilling Elite 16 final yet today in Jurmala. After two amazing rally’s went Ahmed and Cherif’s way on both sides of an Italian timeout, they seemed dead to rights trailing 17-20 in the second set. They had already lost the first set and Cherif and Ahmed were siding out on autopilot. Qatars first chance at the win was met with an emphatic bounce down the line by Samuelle.Next, Cottafava made a read on Ahmed’s line shot and hit off the defenders hands as he was stuck at the net in transition. Next Nicolai came up with one of what felt like 1000 blocks to even the score. The teams exchanged side outs with Cottafava making some very brave swings that kept them alive by centimeters. Finally Samuelle came up with an ace to get the lead 26-25 and followed it up with a tough serve that ended with an overpass that Nicolai took care of. The third set went Italy’s way 15-12 and ended an amazing week for the new Italian pair just before the world championships start in their home country. Photo reposted from .cotta

Sarah Pavan & Melissa Humana-Paredes have been beating up on Brazil all week in Jurmala. The Candadians finished second in pool B, with both wins coming against Brazil and today they took out Brazi’ls power teams in the quarterfinals and semifinals to advance to the championship match. And guess who they will play tomorrow? That’s right, Brazil again! The defending World Champions have only played in Elite 16s this season, so this is just their third tournament of the year, and it seems they are hitting their stride just in time to defend their world crown. Today they eliminatedTalita and Rebecca 21-17, 21-18 before knocking out Duda & Ana Patricia 18-21, 21-19, 15-10. The Canadians looked rattled early in the 1st set of the semifinals, falling behind 15-8 at one point, but they built momentum and confidence to close out the set. They were forced to battle from behind in the second set, too, but finally got the lead at 14-13 when Mel came up with a big ace causing confusion with a serve right down the middle. A few minutes later they scored another point on a long rally that featured some great defense by Humana-Parades. At set point it was Melissa who came up big again in the rain with a dig and transition kill to force a third set. Pavan took over early in the third set with couple of blocks during a four point run that built a lead the Canadians never let go of. The last Brazilian hurdle for Sarah and Melissa is Barbara and Carol, who finished second to Duda and Ana Patricia in their pool, but had a great two win day to make the championship match as well. Barbara and Carol already have two tournament wins at the challenge level and could become the first team to win three Beach Pro Tour events.

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