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June 22, 2005
IN THE NEWS...
Canadian Women Represented on the Beach in Berlin
Volleyball Canada
Berlin, GERMANY - The best beach volleyball players in the world have landed in Berlin, Germany and are fiercely battling for top honours at the 2005 FIVB World Beach Volleyball Championships. Among the 48 qualified teams are 3 Canadian pairs, and at the end of the first day, two remain in the hunt for world's crown.
Canada's Annie Martin (Sherbrooke, QC) & Marie-Christine Pruneau (Windsor, QC) clearly had the toughest opponents today. In their first match they played against Australia's Natalie Cook and Summer Lochowicz. Although this team is ranked 29th they are a far better team than their ranking suggests defeating the Canadians 21-18, 21-14. In a very unfortunate turn of events, Cuba defeated Brazil's Olympic silver medallists Shelda Bede & Adriana Bahar. This team is tops on the best of days, so in a do or die match up, the skill and experience of the Brazilians was to much for Martin & Pruneau dropping in straight sets 17-21, 13-21 ending their World Championship hopes.
Guylaine Dumont (St-Antoine de Tilly, QC) & Caroline Fiset (St-Charles-Borromée, QC) had a shaky start to their day losing in straight sets to Japan's Ryoko Tokuno & Mika Saiki 10-21, 16-21. The pair was not about to make an early exit from this event and stormed back to defeat Chiaki Kusuhara & Satoko Urata of Japan 21-19, 21-18. Dumont & Fiset will now play Mexico's Hilda Gaxiola & Celina Garcia in their first match tomorrow.
"Today, Caroline and I played 2 matches against Japanese teams. The first match we'll definitely erase from our minds but we used the experience to come back with determination for the second match," commented Guylaine Dumont. "We made some adjustments, sped up the game by lowering sets to Caroline and it worked very well."
Marie-Andrée Lessard (Montreal, QC) & Sarah Maxwell (Truro, NS) had a full day at their first ever World Championships. Lessard & Maxwell open the event with a 3 set victory of China's Xiaoyan Hu & Xi Zhang winning 22-20, 18-21, 15-12. The pair were unable to carry that momentum into their next match against 5th rank Jai Tian & Fei Wang of China losing 21-13, 21-19. In their third and final match of the day, the Canadians reclaimed their form and finished on the winning end of another 3 set match 21-16, 20-22, 15-10. Lessard & Maxwell will take a much deserved rest and will continue their quest tomorrow against Italy's Laura Bruschini & Diletta Lunardi.
"It was a full day for us playing 3 matches and having to gut it out in all of them," commented Sarah Maxwell "It was a great start to our first ever World Championships. We obviously were "feeling" China as we faced two teams from China. Having to recover quickly and get back out there, we literally ran the Boston Marathon to win against a feisty and defensive Spanish team. Marie and I never gave up on a ball and that determination was the difference."
Canada's top women's teams continue their play tomorrow.
Don't forget that Volleyball Canada will host the world at the 2005 FIVB World Beach Volleyball Tour Stop in Montreal, Canada on August 24-28 at Uniprix Stadium - Jar
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