Press Release

SANTA PONSA, MALLORCA, July 6, 2004 - The elimination bracket for the women's Mallorca Open Qualification Tournament is set as Irina Brandstetter and Annabelle Borchard won the Austrian country quota playoff here Tuesday morning to continue their efforts for a spot in the 32-team Main Draw.

Seeded 26th in the 32-team women's qualifier, Brandstetter and Borchard scored a 23-21 and 21-14 win over 29th-seeded Eva-Maria Pichler and Isabelle Czerveniak to advance from the Austrian country quota where the European country will have three other teams.

Also competing in the Qualification Tournament for Austria are 11th-seeded Sara Montagnolli/Barbara Hansel, 20th-seeded Sabine Swoboda/Christina Gschweidl and 22nd-seeded Stefanie Schwaiger/Doris Schwaiger.

The women's Mallorca Open Main Draw starts Thursday and concludes with women's "final four" matches will be played Saturday with the winning team sharing the $27,000 first-place prize. The fourth of five-straight mixed gender events, the Mallorca Open will start men's qualifying Wednesday with the Main Draw beginning Friday and the finals Sunday. After the Mallorca spot, the SWATCH-FIVB World Tour concludes is string of mixed gender events with the annual stop in Marseille, France (July 13-18).

PAST MALLORCA WOMEN'S PODIUM PLACEMENTS

Year - Gold Medal / Silver Medal / Bronze Medal
1999 - Laura Bruschini/Annamaria Solazzi, Italy / Anabelle Prawerman/Cecile Rigaux, France / Eva Celbova/Sona Novakova, Czech Republic
2002 - Adriana Behar/Shelda Bede, Brazil / Misty May/Kerri Walsh, United States / Ana Paula Connelly/Tatiana Minello, Brazil