USA pairs had mixed results Thursday at the Volleyball World Pro Beach Tour Elite 16 in Ostrava, Czech Republic.
On the women’s side, third-seeded Sara Hughes and Kelley Kolinske survived a tough three-setter over Swiss Olympians Joan Heidrich and Anouk Verge-Depre, taking 55 minutes to beat the No. 11 seed 21-19, 20-22, 15-12.
Hughes and Kolinske play sixth-seeded Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes on Friday. The Canadian Olympians took a three-set loss to 14th-seeded Germans Svenja Muller and Cinja Tillmann on Thursday.
Olympian Sarah Sponcil and Terese Cannon, seeded 15th, lost to seventh-seeded Brazilians Duda Lisboa and Ana Patricia Silva 21-18, 21-10. They play Australian Olympians Mariafe Artacho and Taliqua Clancy on Friday. The Aussies, seeded 10th, lost to Latvian Olympians Tina Graudina, the USC product, and Anastasija Kravcenoka. The Latvians plays the Brazilians on Friday.
For the USA men, 15th-seeded Tri Bourne and Trevor Crabb beat seventh-seeded Estonians Kusti Nolvak and Mart Tiisaar 19-21, 21-16, 16-14. They then lost to Brazilians Guto Carvalhaes and Alison Cerutti 21-19, 21-10. The Brazilians knocked off the second seed, Olympic bronze medalists Cherif Samba and Ahmed Tijan of Qatar, 27-25, 21-18. Bourne ad Crabb play the Qataris on Friday.
Theo Brunner and Chaim Schalk, seeded 11th, lost two tough matches. They fell to third-seeded Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen of the Netherlands 17-21, 21-19, 15-9, and then to 14th-seeded Robin Seidl and Philipp Waller of Australia 21-16, 19-21, 15-10. Brunner and Schalk finish pool play Friday against sixth-seeded Anders Mol and Christian Sorum, the Norwegian Olympic gold-medalists.
Click here for the women’s results and schedule, courtesy of BVBinfo.com, and here for the