The American beach volleyball team of Stanford grad Kerri Walsh Jennings and USC grad April Ross needed 28 minutes to dispatch Paraguay’s Gabriela Filippo and Michelle Valiente Amarilla, 21-6, 21-10, in the Round of 32 at the FIVB Beach World Championships in Apeldoorn, Netherlands on Wednesday.
Fillippo and Michelle were within 7-5 in the first set when Ross and Walsh Jennings scored the set’s next 13 points.
The Americans scored the first six points of the second set and were never seriously challenged, building a lead of 19-9.
“That was really a great match with really tough serving by (Ross), which made it very easy on me,” said Walsh Jennings. “We want this sucker so bad. We’ve got four matches to win; this is another one down.”
Ross has been using her jump serve off and on at the event. She used it a lot — and effectively — Wednesday.
“I want to use it, if it’s working, I’m going to use it,” Ross said. “We had never seen that team before. We didn’t know really what to expect. We came out and played aggressive and played together.”
The third-seeded Walsh Jennings and Ross advance into the Round of 16, and will meet China’s top-ranked team of Fan Wang and Yuan Yue, seeded 12th in the championships, in the morning round.
Wang and Yue defeated USA’s 19th-seeded Jennifer Kessy and Emily Day in straight sets, 21-19, 21-18, in 40 minutes.
Thursday’s world championship schedule will feature two rounds of elimination matches for both men and women.
The medal matches will be July 4 for women and July 5 for men.
In addition to playing for the $60,000 first-place prize money, the FIVB World Championships will also reward the country with the gold medal team a berth in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
The winners of Thursday’s early round of eight will meet in the evening for the quarterfinals, with the winner advancing to The Hague for the semifinals and medal matches.
By FIVB/USA volleyball
By FIVB/USA volleyball
By FIVB/USA volleyball