Four of five USA volleyball teams broke pool Friday in the two-star FIVB beach tournament in Siem Reap, Cambodia, advancing to Saturday’s elimination playoffs.
Traci Callahan and Crissy Jones and Aurora Davis and Allie Wheeler won both their modified pool-play matches, while Lauren Fendrick and Sara Hughes and Terese Cannon and Kelly Reeves split their matches, with a single win advancing them to the single-elimination playoffs.
Kim Hildreth and Sarah Schermerhorn were eliminated when they lost both their Friday matches.
Callahan-Jones knocked off top-seeded compatriots Hughes and Fendrick 12-21, 24-22, 15-13 in Fendrick’s first contest since Fendrick gave birth to daughter Willa on June 3. Callahan-Jones went on to defeat Russia’s Alexandra Moiseeva-Ekaterina Syrtseva 21-18, 21-12. Their first-round opponent will be Israel’s Anita Dave-Noga Maor.
In the other pool A second-round match, Fendrick-Hughes recovered to defeat Canada’s Amanda Harnett-Marie Christine Lapointe 21-14, 21-16. That sets up the unlikely first-round matchup of top-seeded Fendrick-Hughes against No. 2 Japan’s Azusa Futami-Akiko Hasegawa on Saturday.
Davis’s and Wheeler’s first playoff match was a near walkover, as they defeated Cambodia’s Mak Chanda and Soeu Sreynat 21-2, 21-1 in 19 minutes. They won their pool by defeating Japan’s Sayaka Mizoe-Takemi Nishibori 21-15, 21-19. Their next opponent is Thailand’s Rumpaipruet Numwong and Tanarattha Udomchavee.
Cannon and Reeves beat Chinese Taipei’s Nai-Han Kou and Pi Hsin Liu 21-15, 21-6, but fell to the No. 3 seed, Australians Nicole Laird and Becchara Palmer, 21-18, 23-21. They get Vanuatu’s Miller Pata-Shersyn Toko the elimination playoffs.
Hildreth-Schermerhorn were unable to advance out of pool in their first international competition, falling to Futami and Hasegawa 21-17, 21-16 and Australia’s Phoebe Bell and Brittany Kendall 21-14, 21-16.
Full results and playoff brackets can be found on BVBinfo.com.
