Playoffs are under way in the FIVB four-star beach volleyball event in Ostrava Beach in the Czech Republic as the USA advanced four women’s and two men’s teams to elimination playoffs.
April Ross and Alix Klineman earned a bye after defeating Kerri Walsh Jennings and Brooke Sweat in pool play (18-21, 21-16, 17-15). Their second-round opponent will be fellow Americans Kelly Claes and Sarah Sponcil, who defeated Switzerland’s Nina Betschart (21-19, 21-16) in the first round.
Walsh Jennings and Sweat defeated Latvia’s Tina Graudina and Anastasija Kravcenoka (21-10, 21-18) to reach the second round, where they will play Switzerland’s Joana Heidrich and Anouk Verge-Depre.
Sara Hughes and Summer Ross defeated Brazil’s Talita Antunes and Taiana Lima (21-18, 21-15) to reach the second round, where they will face another Brazilian pair, Ana Patricia Silva and Rebecca Cavalcanti.
In the men’s draw, Tri Bourne and Trevor Crabb’s first-round opponent is Russia’s Ilya Leshukov and Konstantin Semenov. Bourne-Crabb finished second in pool play after losing to Latvia’s Martins Plavins and Edgars Tocs (21-13, 21-12), but rebounding with a win over Germany’s Philipp Bergmann and Yannick Harms (17-21, 21-19, 16-14).
Billy Allen and Stafford Slick will face Plavins-Tocs in a first-round matchup. Allen-Slick split their pool-play matches, losing to the Czech Republic’s Ondrej Perusic and David Schweiner (21-13, 21-18) and defeating Switzerland’s Mirco Gerson and Adrian Heidrich (21-18, 18-21, 15-10).
