Third American Country Quota match at Sanya Open Tournament, China
The Sanya Open Tournament is the 17th stop on SWATCH FIVB World Tour Calendar. This particular event is only dedicated to women’s competitions. The men’s tournaments for the 2010 season have been rounded off with the last event in August. The
SWATCH FIVB Sanya Open Tournament is scheduled to run from 26-31 October, 2010 at the Chinese resort city, Sanya. A total of 26 nations have sent their beach volleyball duos in the form of 65 teams. Almost all the famous teams are on the board to fight for
the title-trophy at Sanya Open.
The top-seeded Brazilian duo of Juliana Felisberta Silva and Larissa Franca are attending the event. In addition, the second seeded pair from Brazil, Maria Antonelli/Talita Antunes and this year’s winners of the AVC Women’s Beach Volleyball, China’s Xue
Chen/Zhang Xi are also in the squad. The Sanya Open Tournament will offer US$190,000 as prize money to the victorious duo. The tournament started off on Tuesday with the country quota playoffs. On the opening day of the tournament, three CQ matches were played
among four American teams.
Country Quota fixtures for Tuesday were as followed:
Fendrick/Hanson vs. Hunkus/Heather Gregory/Hochevar vs. Ashley Ivy/Lisa Rutledge Fendrick/Hanson vs. Gregory/Hochevar
The pair of Lauren Fendrick/ Brooke Hanson displayed incredible play in the first match and crushed Tealle Hunkus/Heather Lowe in two straight sets. Likewise, Gregory/Hochevar outplayed Ashley Ivy/Lisa Rutledge in the second match and qualified for the third
match with Fendrick/Hanson. The qualifier third match between the two winners of first two matches was supposed to promote the victorious pair in the Main-Draw stage on Wednesday.
Fendrick/Hanson vs. Gregory/Hochevar 2-0 (21-15, 21-17)
The players of both teams were quite charged up with the victories in their previous matches. The third fixture of the day was another test of their defence and attack abilities. The teams descended in the court with their master-plans. Fendrick opened the
first set with strong serve and rivalry started. The game of hit-and-run kept the players busy, while the fans thoroughly enjoyed the fantastic game. The score shifted up with a close difference until the second technical timeout (TTO). The players sat in
the vital timeout and discussed the strategy to end the tussle. Fendrick/Hanson came up with strong attack and hit unstoppable under-hand shots. They earned consecutive points and took the score to the verge of victory. They ended the first set with 21-15
victory over Gregory/Hochevar and attained a stronger spot in the game.
The loss of first set put Gregory and Hachevar on fire. They followed a different approach in the second set and tried to recover from the shock of defeat. They needed to strengthen their defence as the competitor side was fond of hitting powerful spikes.
Gregory/Hochevar’s game saw a bit of improvement but the duo of Fendrick/Hanson proved to be a tough nut to crack. They came up with strong attack and didn’t stop scoring. Gregory and Hocehvar couldn’t match their performance with the challenger side and lagged
behind in the scores’ run. Fendrick/Hanson finally thrashed 21-17 victory and claimed the match. They successfully reserved their berth in the Main-Draw stage.
"The country quota matches are really tough, it's just a different kind of pressure," Hanson said. "We did a good job respecting our opponents. We haven't played either one as a team, so we knew their tendencies as individuals but nothing about them as a
team. We just tried to focus on our side of the net. In the heat you want to get out and experience game-like conditions to see what it's like, so I think this will help us going into the qualifier."
Tags: