Team USA heads into Round of 16
Team USA has some serious medal contenders in beach volleyball -- men and women, fresh faces and veterans.
On Day 6, the youngest U.S. beach volleyball pair ever, Kelly Claes, 25, and Sarah Sponcil, 24, dominated Kenyan duo Gaudencia Makokha and Brackcides Khadambi in their second preliminary victory, 21-8, 21-6. The match lasted just under half an hour; in that time, Sponcil hit five aces.
Later, Nicholas Lucena and Phil Dalhausser scored a three set victory over their Argentine opponents, 21-19, 18-21, 15-6, to clinch a spot in the Round of 16.
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Though neither the women's team of Alex Klineman and April Ross or men's team of Tri Bourne and Jake Gibb played today, both have already qualified for the Round of 16 -- even with one more preliminary match for each duo on the horizon.
SEE MORE: Team USA's Lucena/Dalhausser beat Argentina, advance in beach volleyball
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CAN (Pavan/Melissa) def. SUI (Verge-Depre, A./Heidrich)
The Canadian duo of Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes remains perfect with a 21-13, 24-22 minute win over Switzerland -- which was just shy of 45 minutes.
NED (Stam/Schoon) def. GER (Sude/Borger)
Katja Stam and Raisa Schoon of Netherlands finally got their win and a place in the Lucky losers bracket by dooming Germany's Julia Sude and Karla Borger to an 0-3 mark in Pool A.
CHN (Wang/X.Y.Xia) def. ARG (Gallay/Pereyra)
China's Wang Fan and Xia Xinyi advanced after defeating Argentine duo Ana Gallay and Fernanda Pereyra 21-14, 21-13 for their third straight win in the tournament.
BRA (Agatha/Duda) def. CAN (Bansley/Wilkerson)
Brazilians Agatha Bednarczuk and former youth Olympic champion Duda overcame the Canadian pair of Heather Bansley and Brandie Wilkerson 21-18, 21-18.
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CZE (Perusic/Schweiner) def. MEX (Gaxiola/Rubio)
Another scrappy loss for Mexico's Josue Gaxiola and Jose Rubio, who again rebounded from a first set loss but fell in the third to now 1-1 Ondrej Perusic and David Schweiner of Czech Republic, who lost their first match due to COVID-19 protocols.
LAT (Plavins/Tocs) def. ROC (Krasilnikov/Stoyanovskiy)
Latvia finally got to play after being awarded a win over the Czechs in their opening match of pool play, and Martins Plavins and Edgars Tocs had plenty of work to do in order to win a three-set match with the Russian Olympic Committee.
BRA (Alison/Alvaro Filho) def. (Brouwer/Meeuwsendef)
Rio 2016 champion Alison Cerutti and Alvaro Filho of Brazil advanced as Pool D winners with a 21-14, 24-22 win over Dutch duo Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen, who also qualified as runners-up.
