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2015-06-09 20:00:00 CET

Tuesday highlights at the Stavanger Major: Recap

With both woman qualification rounds and men’s Country Quota on the menu, the day would provide plenty of action. And as it progressed, it proved to be the day for twins in Stavanger!

The beautiful day here in the cool northern sunlight of Stavanger, Norway, made a fine stage for an exiting start of the second stop of the Swatch Major Series. And as it turned out, it was a day for “twins” in the Norwegian “oil” capital as the Nystroms of Finland joined the Poniewaz of Germany in winning “key” matches here Tuesday to advance to the next rounds of competition in the US$800,000 Stavanger Major, the second stop on the SWATCH Beach Volleyball Major Series.
The Poniewaz (Bennet and David) were the first to advance to the next round by winning a men’s country quota match to earn a spot in the 32-team qualification tournament that starts Wednesday morning.  The Nystroms (Emilia and Erika) had to win two matches by posting seed-break-through victories over teams from the United States and Kazakhstan to earn a berth in the “money” rounds of the women competition where pool play starts Wednesday.

Photocredit: FIVBPhotocredit: FIVB

Photocredit: Thomas KarlsenPhotocredit: Thomas Karlsen

Finnish force

The 29th-seeded Nystroms, who have played in more FIVB-sanctioned events (157) together than any other team in the world, opened play Tuesday by posting a 2-1 (19-21, 21-15, 18-16) win over fourth-seeded Lane Carico/Kimberly Dicello before advancing with a 2-1 (21-18, 13-21, 15-10) victory in 45 minutes over 20th-seeded Tatyana Mashkova/Irina Tsimbalova of Kazakhstan.

Other pairs advancing to the 32-team women’s Main Draw are top-seeded Fernanda Alves/Taiana Lima Brazil, second-seeded Ekaterina Birlova/Evgeniya Ukolova of Russia, fifth-seeded Monika Brzostek/Kinga Kolosinska of Poland, 11th-seeded Isabelle Forrer/Anouk Verge-Depre of Switzerland, 14th-seeded Barbara Hansel/Stefanie Schwaiger of Austria and 25th-seeded Mariafe Artacho/Nicole Laird of Australia.

Brazilian winning streak

Fernanda and Lima have now won three matches this week with a Country Quota victory Tuesday.  The previous two weeks in Russia and Croatia, the Brazilians had lost to compatriots in the preliminary rounds.  Fernanda and Lima captured a FIVB World Tour gold medal last season in The Hague in their first international event together.

Photocredit: Thomas KarlsenPhotocredit: Thomas Karlsen

Photocredit: Thomas KarlsenPhotocredit: Thomas Karlsen

Norwegians in the mix

Along with the aforementioned german twins, another german team, namely Armin Dollinger/Clemens Wickler advanced from the Country Quota playoffs. So did the tandems of Marcio Araujo/Saymon Barbosa of Brazil and Runar Sannarnes/Christian Sorum of Norway.

Sannarnes and Sorum are competing in their first-ever FIVB World Tour event together and will be seeking to become the fourth Norwegian pair in the men’s “money” rounds that start Thursday with pool play matches. Already placed in the Main Draw for the host country are the pairs of Iver Horrem/Geir Eithun, Lars Tveit Retterholt/Bjarte Usken and Oivind Hordvik/Kvamsdal Morten.

More fun to come

The first official day of the Stavanger Major is due, but still there is plenty of more fun to come as the event continues through the weekend with the gold medal teams sharing the $57,000 first-place prize along with garnering 800 points towards their qualifying for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. The women’s semi-final and medal matches will be played Saturday while the men’s “final four” contests will be staged Sunday.

Photocredit: Thomas KarlsenPhotocredit: Thomas Karlsen

Photocredit: Thomas KarlsenPhotocredit: Thomas Karlsen

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