Beach Volley Blog

Renato and Vítor Felipe silenced the Foro Itálico with the most stunning turn around I can remember. Paolo Nicolai and Samuelle Cottafava came storming out of the gate to win the first set but the Brazilians held firm and won the next two nail biting sets to advance to the quarter finals and destroy the Italian’s dreams. They are one of four Brazilian teams remaining in the World Championships. Photo by

Americans Terese Cannon & Sarah Sponcil came up with a big come from behind win today over Australia to clinch first place in Pool H. Cannon and Sponcil’s pool included two teams that played in Tokyo, including Olympic Silver medalists Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy. The Australians came out strong with Clancy scoring on serve, blocking and Mariafe covering the court on defense as always. Sponcil and Mariafe exchanged so many digs in the very entertaining match. Cannon and Sponcil are gelling into a very good team. Earlier this season, Sponcil was making dig but struggling a bit with transition attacks, but after six tournaments together, she and Cannon are firing on all cylinders. Last year when she played with Claes (Cheng) her precise passing led to frequent second ball attacks. That isn’t part of this new team’s game yet, but they had plenty of other weapons today to come up with a very important 16-21, 21-19, 15-6. Late in the second set the Americans saw a big lead evaporate, but had enough of a gap to hold off the hard charging Aussies. The third set was all America with Cannon showing her intent with five huge blocks sealing the deal.

Photo by

Brandie Wilkerson & Sophie Bukovec got the biggest win of their young partnership today to win Pool E at the World Championships in Rome. The Canadians got their win at the expense of their American rivals Kelly Cheng and Betsy Flint, who are also a new team this season. So far in 2022 Cheng & Flint were the more successful of two North American teams and entered pool E as the top seeds. Both teams took care of business in their first two matches so todays clash was for the pool win. The Americans built a big 18-14 lead before Sophie caught fire from the service line and delivered a shocking 21-19 set one win. In the second set Canada used a 5 point run to open up a 17-13 lead. Brandie was at the service line this time but it was her presence at the net getting her hands on several shots and funneling the American attack to Sophie that had the big impact. Finishing pool play today means two days off for both of these teams before the knockout stage begins. Photo by

Another day at the world championships, another big upset by Italy. Today it was Wild Card entrants Jacob Windisch & Gianluca Dal Corso taking down top seeds in their pool the Grimaldo cousins. Their pool didn’t start until today so they still have a little work to do before that are safely into the knockouts but that was a very good way for them to start in Rome. Photo by