Americans Lauren Fendrick and Sara Hughes and Terese Cannon and Kelly Reeves are into Sunday’s semifinals at the FIVB two-star event in Siem Reap, Cambodia.
Top-seeded Fendrick-Hughes face No. 4 Yurika Sakaguchi-Chiyo Suzuki of Japan in the first semifinal at 10 a.m. local time in Cambodia, while No. 15 Cannon-Reeves will face No. 16 Sofia Bisgaard-Cecilie Olsen of Denmark in the other at 11.
The bronze- and gold-medal matches follow at 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. FIVB Youtube links can be found on our VolleyballMag.com daily TV and streaming listings.
Saturday Fendrick Hughes beat both second-seeded Azusa Futami and Akiko Hasegawa of Japan (22-20, 21-19) and No. 7 Sayaka Mizoe-Takemi Nishibori of Japan (22-20, 21-19).
Fendrick and Hughes, a new pair in 2020, are making a barnstorming late run at an Olympic berth, needing to accumulate all 12 finishes in 2020. Fendrick, a 2016 Rio Olympian with Brooke Sweat, took 2019 off for the birth of hers and Stanford volleyball head coach Andrew Fuller’s first child, Willa.
Cannon and Reeves beat fifth-seeded Miller Pata-Sherysyn Toko of Vanuatu (21-12, 21-12) and survived a stiff challenge from compatriots Traci Callahan and Crissy Jones (21-13, 19-21, 15-13).
Bisgaard-Olsen pulled off a nice upset when they beat No. 3 Nicole Laird and Becchara Palmer of Australia (21-19, 16-21, 15-7).
Callahan and Jones, seeded No. 24, finished fifth, while Aurora Davis and Allie Wheeler placed ninth.
Siem Reap is Cannon’s and Reeves’ first international event together, although they have had domestic success, finishing third in last summer’s AVP Manhattan Beach.
Callahan and Jones earlier defeated No. 18 Anita Dave-Noga Maor of Israel (21-11, 21-10). It was their first world tour event, though Callahan has competed in nine NORCECA events.
Davis-Wheeler fell to ninth-seeded Rumpaipruet Numwong-Tanarattha Udomchavee of Thailand (16-21, 21-16, 15-13) in the first elimination round. Cambodia was the Americans’ second event together, following their gold-medal finish at NORCECA Bonaire in 2019.
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