Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 13, 2016 - It’s the “Copacabana Comeback” for Louise Bawden and Taliqua Clancy as the Australians have forgotten their March experiences on the iconic beach to advance to the women’s Beach Volleyball quarter-finals at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games after defeating a Polish park here late Saturday night.
After placing 25th at the Rio Grand Slam in March with only one win in three matches, Bawden and Clancy are now 4-0 in the Rio Olympics after posting a 2-1 (15-21, 21-16, 15-11) come-from-behind elimination win in 51 minutes over Monika Brzostek and Kinga Kolosinska of Poland.
It was the fifth international match between the two teams and the first since August 2015 as Bawden and Clancy lead the series 3-2. However, the Aussies forfeited the last match at the Olsztyn Grand Slam to give Bawden and Clancy a 3-1 edge on sand.
With the win, Bawden and Clancy bid for their country’s first semi-final berth in the Olympics since 2004 by challenging American Olympic medalists April Ross and Kerri Walsh Jennings in the fourth of four women quarter-final matches Saturday. Ross and Walsh Jennings have won all four of their past matches with the Aussies, bur the two teams have not met on the beach since April 2015 in the first FIVB World Tour qualifying event for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
After the Aussies and Poles split the first two sets, the two teams were tied at 6-6 in the decider when Bawden and Clancy scored two-straight points to take the lead for good at 8-6. As the first Polish women’s team to participate in the Olympic Beach Volleyball competition, Brzostek and Kolosinska pulled to within one point three times with the last at 11-12, but the Aussies closed out the match with three-straight points.
