Rio de Janeiro, August 9, 2016 - Italy's Laura Giombini/Marta Menegatti and Egypt's Doaa Elghobashy/Nada Meawad, the two teams with the least amount of experience playing together start off day four for the women in a pool D match. Both teams lost their opening match and need a win or they could miss the elimination round.
Head to Head
The two teams have never met in FIVB World Tour competition.
Historically the #9 seed has won two of the three meetings against the #21 seed in the Olympic Games, all in pool play. The higher seed won the last two matches in straight sets in London (2012) and Beijing (2008), while the lower seed pulled the upset in three sets in Athens (2004).
Laura Giombini/Marta Menegatti, Italy, Seed #9, Pool D, 0-1, 0.500 Set Ratio, 0.9412 Point Ratio, Qualified 8th with 5,300 Points in the 2015-16 Olympic qualification period
• Laura: January 4, 1989 (27y7m2d), 183 cm (6'0"), 70 kg (155 lbs.), Hometown Perugia, 55th FIVB World Tour event with $53,313 in career winnings
• Marta: August 16, 1990 (25y11m21d), 180 cm (5'11"), 67 kg (149 lbs.), Hometown Rovigo, 82nd FIVB World Tour event (ranks 88th), one gold medal, $418,325 career winnings (ranks 32nd)
• Laura and Marta are playing in their first FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour tournament together.
• Laura has never played in an FIVB World Tour final four. Her best career World Tour finish is a 5th-place with Giulia Momoli in the 2014 Mangaung Open in South Africa.
• Marta has played in 21 FIVB World Tour final fours with one gold, six silver, six bronze medals and eight 4th place finishes.
• Marta finished 5th in the Olympic Games with Greta Cicolari in 2012 (London).
• Laura finished 37th in the FIVB World Championships with Valeria Rosso in 2011 (Rome) and 17th with Daniela Gioria in 2013 (Stare Jablonki).
• Marta finished 9th in the FIVB World Championships in 2011 (Rome), and 5th in 2013 (Stare Jablonki), both with Greta Cicolari and 9th in 2015 (The Hague) with Viktoria Orsi Toth.
• Laura Giombini and Rebecca Perry are currently ranked 59th in FIVB World Tour points in 2016 with 580 points and 50th in winnings with $7,800.
• Laura and Marta have a career 0-1 (0.0%) match record in FIVB World Tour Events, all in 2015-16.
• Marta and Viktoria Orsi Toth are currently ranked 7th in FIVB World Tour points in 2016 with 4,260 points and 13th in winnings with $96,875.
• Marta and Viktoria Orsi Toth have a career 122-78 (61.0%) match record in FIVB World Tour Events and a 73-39 (65.2%) record in 2015-16.
• Marta and Viktoria Orsi Toth won Italy's only FIVB World Tour gold medal.
• Marta and Viktoria Orsi Toth won the silver medal at the U21 World Championships in 2010 (Alanya, Turkey).
• Marta won the silver medal at the U19 World Championships with Gilda Lombardo in 2007 (Myslowice, Poland).
• Marta won the gold medal at the European (CEV) Continental Championships with Greta Cicolari in 2011 (Kristiansand, Norway).
• Marta was named the FIVB World Tour Most Improved Player in 2011.
• Lost to Jamie Broder / Kristina Valjas, Canada (16), 21-15, 18-21, and 9-15 in 56 minutes.
Doaa Elghobashy/Nada Meawad, Egypt, Seed #21, Pool D, 0-1, 0.000 Set Ratio, 0.6429 Point Ratio, Qualified through African Confederation (CAVB) Continental Cup
• Doaa: November 8, 1996 (19y8m29d), Hometown Beheira, 1st FIVB World Tour event
• Nada: April 12, 1998 (18y3m25d), 180 cm (5'11"), 71 kg (158 lbs.), Hometown Cairo, 1st FIVB World Tour event
• Doaa and Nada are playing in their 1st FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour tournament together.
• Doaa and Nada have a career 0-1 (0.0%) match record in FIVB World Tour Events, all in 2015-16.
• With no previous FIVB World Tour events played, Doaa and Nada are the least experienced team competing in the Rio Olympics.
• Doaa and Meawad are the first team from Egypt to compete in the Olympic Games for beach volleyball.
• Nada is the youngest women's player to compete in any of the six Olympic Games at 18 years, 3 months.
• Doaa is the second youngest women's player to compete in the Rio Olympics at 19 years, 8 months. She is sixth youngest in all Olympic Games.
• Doaa and Meawad competed with different partners in helping Egypt to secure a berth in Rio. Doaa played with Lamies Nossier and Nada with Randa Radwan. Egypt posted a 5-0 record in the mid-April African Continental Cup finals in Abuja, Nigeria. With early wins over teams from Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, and Nigeria, the Egyptians defeated Rwanda 2-1 in the finals as Doaa and Nossier won the deciding match.
• Lost to Laura Ludwig / Kira Walkenhorst, Germany (4), 12-21 and 15-21 in 34 minutes.