Fan Wang (pictured) and Chinese partner Yuan Yue posted a win over Switzerland at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games early Sunday morning
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 6, 2016 - With two of the six matches being three-setters, Saturday’s opening Beach Volleyball schedule for women at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games was almost “business as usual” with only one upset by a lower-seeded pair in the competition.
In the next to last match on the schedule in Pool C, Fan Wang and Yuan Yue of China upset Isabelle Forrer and Anouk Verge-Depre of Switzerland 2-1 (24-22, 17-21, 15-12) in 67 minutes as the match started here late Saturday evening and ended early Sunday morning.
With matches being played in three of the six women’s pools, Saturday’s second-best meeting was between local favorites Agatha Bednarczuk and Barbara Seixas against Barbora Hermannova and Marketa Slukova of the Czech Republic. While the Brazilians earned their way into the Olympics by winning the 2015 FIVB World Championships in The Hague, the Czech women gained one of the last two Copacabana berths via the FIVB Continental Cup Finals last month in Sochi, Russia.
Agatha and Barbara recovered from a first set setback to post a 2-1 (19-21, 21-17, 15-11) Pool B win in 57 minutes over Hermannova and Slukova. In the other Pool B match, Elsa Baquerizo/Liliana Fernandez of Spain defeated Ana Gallay/Georgina Klug of Argentina 2-0 (21-11, 21-19) in 40 minutes in a meeting of FIVB World Tour Olympic qualifiers.
In Pool F, Madelein Meppelink/Marleen Van Iersel of The Netherlands scored a 2-0 (21-17, 21-11) win in 34 minutes over Norisbeth Agudo/Olaya Pazo of Venezuela while Louise Bawden/Taliqua Clancy of Australia defeated Natalia Alfaro/Karen Charles of Costa Rica 2-0 (21-15, 21-14) in 40 minutes. The Dutch and Aussies qualified for Rio via the FIVB World Tour while Venezuelans (South America) and Costa Ricans (NORCECA) were Continental Cup winners.
In the final match on the opening day schedule, American Olympic medalists April Ross and Kerri Walsh Jennings of the United States defeated Mariafe Artacho and Nicole Laird of Australia 2-0 (21-14, 21-13) in a 35-minute Pool C contest.
Artacho and Laird qualified for the Rio Olympics by winning the Asian confederation Continental Cup competition.