Agadir, Morocco, July 27, 2018 – Two Swedish teams are among the six that won their pools in the women’s main draw at the Agadir two-star event on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour. A total of 16 duos came out of Friday’s pool stage with tickets to the elimination phase set to start on Saturday.
Teams from Austria, the Czech Republic and Sweden also progressed, but without having to take to the sand courts on the Moroccan Atlantic coast. They received byes in the qualification bracket to qualify for Friday’s main draw action.
Fourth-seeded Swedes Tadva Yoken and Sigrid Simonsson had to start their Pool D campaign with a game against compatriots Isabelle Pahlsson and Anniken Radstrom. Following their speedy 2-0 (21-9, 21-11) win, Yoken and Simonsson went on to claim a 2-0 (21-15, 21-19) victory over Austria’s Franziska Friedl and Nadine Strauss.
Eighth-seeded Kristina Thurin and Susanna Thurin also managed two straight-set victories to top Pool E. The Swedes achieved a 2-0 (21-11, 21-12) win over Switzerland’s Kim Huber and Tatjana Greber before upsetting England’s Victoria Palmer and Jessica Grimson, seeded fifth, with a 2-0 (21-16, 21-17) shutout.
Italy’s Marta Menegatti and Viktoria Orsi Toth, seeded 13th, delivered a 2-0 (21-19, 21-15) upset of top-seeded Russians Ekaterina Birlova and Evgenia Ukolova to win Pool A. Before that, the Italians claimed a 2-0 (21-16, 21-15) victory over Denmark’s Maria Elisabeth Tyndeskov and Line Trans Hansen.
Second-seeded Martina Bonnerova and Sarka Nakladalova of the Czech Republic did not allow any surprises in their Pool B and mastered a 2-0 (21-16, 21-13) win over first place contenders Marta Ozolina and Agnese Caica of Latvia.
Lithuania’s Ieva Dumbauskaite and Urte Andriukaityte, third in the main draw seeding, disappointed the home crowd with a 2-0 (21-14, 21-17) shutout of Morocco’s Imane Zeroual and Mahassine Siad in the first leg of Pool C, and went on to manage a 2-1 (13-21, 21-19, 15-8) come-from-behind victory over Australian wild cards Nicole Laird and Brittany Kendall.
Alise Lece and Ilze Liepinlauska of Latvia topped the final standings in Pool F after defeating Daria Gusarova and Zoi Konstantopoulou of Cyprus by 2-0 (21-16, 21-8) and sixth-seeded Silvia Costantini and Arianna Barboni of Italy by 2-0 (21-13, 21-18).