Rio de Janeiro, August 12, 2016 - Spain's Elsa Baquerizo/Liliana Fernandez, pool B winners, battle against lucky loser winners, Ekaterina Birlova/Evgeniya Ukolova of Russia in a round of 16 match that will be their fourth meeting on the FIVB World Tour. The Spaniards have won two of the three matches, but they have not played each other since May, 2015. The winner will advance to the quarterfinals, and the loser will be eliminated with a 9th-place finish.
Head to Head
Elsa/Lili have won two of the three meetings between the teams on the FIVB World Tour, but they have not played each other since May, 2015.
• Baquerizo/Fernandez won 21-14 and 21-12 in 31 minutes, Moscow Grand Slam, Pool Play, 05/28/2015
• Birlova/Ukolova won 24-22, 16-21, and 15-7 in 51 minutes, Berlin Grand Slam, Round of 16, 08/10/2013
• Baquerizo/Fernandez won 21-19 and 21-18 in 36 minutes, Åland Open, Semi-finals, 09/01/2012
Historically the #24 seed has never played the #11 seed in the Olympic Games.
Ekaterina Birlova/Evgeniya Ukolova, Russia, Seed #24, Pool A, 1-2, 3rd Place, Qualified from Continental Cup Finals
• Ekaterina: August 11, 1987 (28y11m26d), 180 cm (5'11"), 64 kg (142 lbs.), Hometown Bryansk, 77th FIVB World Tour event, two gold medals, $208,500 career winnings (ranks 85th)
• Evgeniya: May 17, 1989 (27y2m20d), 182 cm (6'0"), 66 kg (147 lbs.), Hometown Moscow, 109th FIVB World Tour event (ranks 46th), two gold medals, $272,512 career winnings (ranks 62nd)
• Ekaterina and Evgeniya have been playing together since 2011. They are playing in their 51st FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour tournament together (ranks 53rd), two gold medals, $332,200 career winnings (ranks 48th). They have won Russia's only two FIVB World Tour gold medals.
• Ekaterina has played in five FIVB World Tour final fours with two gold, one silver, one bronze medal and one 4th place finish.
• Evgeniya has played in eight FIVB World Tour final fours with two gold, one silver, four bronze medals and one 4th place finish.
• Ekaterina and Evgeniya finished 9th in the Olympic Games in 2012 (London).
• Ekaterina and Evgeniya finished 17th in the FIVB World Championships in 2011 (Rome), 9th in 2013 (Stare Jablonki), and 9th in 2015 (The Hague).
• Evgeniya finished 37th in the FIVB World Championships with Maria Prokopeva in 2009 (Stavanger).
• Ekaterina and Evgeniya are currently ranked 23rd in FIVB World Tour points in 2016 with 2,700 points and 29th in winnings with $47,600.
• Ekaterina and Evgeniya have a career 131-104 (55.7%) match record in FIVB World Tour Events and a 55-47 (53.9%) record in 2015-16.
• Ekaterina and Evgeniya won the silver medal at the European (CEV ) Continental Championships in 2015 (Klagenfurt, Austria).
• Evgeniya won the bronze medal at the 2014 CEV Baku Masters with Alexandra Moiseeva in 2014 (Baku, Azerbaijan).
• Ekaterina and Evgeniya and their Russian teammates were eliminated by France in the quarterfinals of the 2016 CEV Continental Cup in Stavanger, Norway. Russia received a “wild card” for the Sochi finals where Ekaterina teamed with Nadezda Makroguzova to post a 5-1 record in Sochi and Evgeniya and Anastasia Barsuk were 4-2. With a ticket to Rio at stake after Russia and Austria split their first two matches to force a “golden set”, Ekaterina and Evgeniya were reunited on the Sochi sand and posted a 15-2 win over Barbara Hansel and Stefanie Schwaiger to clinch Russia's second Olympic birth.
• Pool A: Lost to Talita Antunes/Larissa Franca, Brazil (1), 14-21 and 16-21 in 34 minutes.
• Pool A: Lost to Monika Brzostek/Kinga Kolosinska, Poland (12), 19-21 and 18-21 in 39 minutes.
• Pool A: Defeated Lauren Fendrick/Brooke Sweat, United States (13), 21-18, 24-26, and 15-13 in 59 minutes.
• Lucky Loser: Defeated Barbora Hermannova/Marketa Slukova, Czech Republic (23), 21-19, 12-21, and 15-10 in 43 minutes.
Elsa Baquerizo/Liliana Fernandez, Spain, Seed #11, Pool B, 3-0, 1st Place, Qualified 10th with 4,830 Points in the 2015-16 Olympic qualification period
• Elsa: June 25, 1987 (29y1m12d), 181 cm (5'11"), 68 kg (151 lbs.), Hometown New York, 97th FIVB World Tour event (ranks 61st), $373,925 career winnings (ranks 41st)
• Liliana: January 4, 1987 (29y7m2d), 178 cm (5'10"), 74 kg (164 lbs.), Hometown Alicante, 98th FIVB World Tour event (ranks 57th), $374,925 career winnings (ranks 39th)
• Elsa and Liliana have been playing together since 2008. They are playing in their 97th FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour tournament together (ranks 9th), $747,850 career winnings (ranks 11th). They have played more FIVB World Tour events together than any other women's team competing in the Rio Olympics.
• Elsa has played in nine FIVB World Tour final fours with four silver medals, two bronze medals and three 4th place finishes.
• Liliana has played in nine FIVB World Tour final fours with four silver medals, two bronze medals and three 4th place finishes.
• Elsa and Liliana have played in two Final Fours in 2015-2016 (Silver Sochi Open 2016, Bronze Cincinnati Open 2016).
• Elsa and Liliana finished 9th in the Olympic Games in 2012 (London).
• Elsa and Liliana finished 9th in the FIVB World Championships in 2011 (Rome), 9th in 2013 (Stare Jablonki), and 9th in 2015 (The Hague).
• Elsa and Liliana are currently ranked 10th in FIVB World Tour points in 2016 with 3,950 points and 8th in winnings with $102,000.
• Elsa and Liliana have a career 237-185 (56.2%) match record in FIVB World Tour Events and a 66-50 (56.9%) record in 2015-16.
• Elsa and Liliana won the bronze medal at the European (CEV) Continental Championship in 2012 (The Hague, Netherlands) and the silver medal in 2013 (Klagenfurt, Austria).
• Elsa and Liliana won one other silver medal and one bronze medal on the CEV Continental Tour from 2012-2014.
• Defeated Ana Gallay/Georgina Klug, Argentina (14), 21-11 and 21-19 in 40 minutes
• Defeated Barbora Hermannova/Marketa Slukova, Czech Republic (23), 21-15 and 21-19 in 41 minutes.
• Defeated Agatha Bednarczuk/Barbara Seixas, Brazil (2), 21-17 and 22-20 in 44 minutes.