In their first tournament as a team, USA's Summer Ross digs the Mikasa off the Halifax sand for Sara Hughes as the Americans impressively won their pool Thursday with a 3-0 record at the 2012 FIVB SWATCH Junior World Championships

Halifax, Nova Scotia, August 30, 2012 – Following Thursday’s last of three pool play matches, 24 of the world’s best young-adult women’s tandems have advanced to single-elimination play as they enjoy the Halifax Harbor sunshine, soothing summer breezes and the heated competition at the 2012 FIVB Beach Volleyball SWATCH Junior World Championships for players under the age of 21. This year’s 12th annual double-gender event began Wednesday in Halifax, a regional municipality of over 300,000 residents located in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia on the east coast of Canada.

Winning their respective pools with undefeated records to earn automatic advancement to Friday’s second round of the single-elimination bracket phase of the tournament are teams from eight countries—Australia, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, Russia, Switzerland and the United States.

The world championship event is being held through Sunday at the purpose-built beach volleyball complex on the Salter Lot of the Halifax Waterfront. This is the not only the second time in the event’s 12-year history that it is being held in North America, but also the second straight year in Halifax.

The teams started pool play on Wednesday divided into eight four-team pools for round-robin play of three matches per team. The women began with two rounds on Wednesday and one on Thursday, while the men had two rounds on Thursday and one on Friday.

The top three teams in each pool (24 total) are advancing to the single-elimination bracket phase of the tournament.  The women will begin their single elimination phase with two rounds on Friday followed by the women’s quarterfinals and semifinals on Saturday. Men will play their first elimination round on Friday, followed by the second round and quarterfinals on Saturday and the semifinals on Sunday morning.

The bronze and gold medal matches for each gender will be held on Sunday event at the SEA stadium center court.

THE UNBEATEN
Undefeated teams leading the way with 3-0 marks while winning their respective pools are USA’s third-seeded Sara Hughes/Summer Ross, Germany’s fourth-seeded Kim Behrens/Christine Aulenbrock, Brazil’s seventh-seeded Drussyla Costa/Rebecca Silva, Russia’s ninth-seeded Ksenia Dabizha/Ekaterina Karapischenko, Czech Republic’s 11th-seeded Eliska Galova/Tereza Vankova and Australia’s 12th-seeded Mariafe Artacho/Taliqua Clancy.

Canada’s top-seeded Melissa Humana-Paredes/Taylor Pischke won their pool with a 2-0 record and Switzerland’s second-seeded Nina Betschart/Anouk Verge-Depre won their only match to win their pool as travel issues eliminated two teams from their pool.

Because the field is 30 teams instead of 32 due to visa and travel issues with several countries forcing withdraws from the tournament, a draw will be held Thursday night between the top two fourth-place pool finishers to determine the final two spots to begin elimination play on Friday.

In the deciding matches in two pools, a pair of 2-0 teams faced off with Germany’s Aulenbrock/Behrens defeating Norway’s 13th-seeded Irmelin Sannarnes/Signe Tauboll in three sets and Russia’s Dabizha/Karapischenko winning their pool by beating Austria’s eighth-seeded Lena Plsiutschnig/Katharina Schuetzenhoefer in two sets.

SWITZERLAND’s BETSCHART
Switzerland’s Betschart, who won the gold medal last year in Halifax with Joana Heidrich, is playing this year with Verge-Depre. Verge-Depre, who finished fifth in the 2009 youth worlds in Alanya, Turkey, has played in 11 FIVB SWATCH World Tour events, including seven this season. The Swiss tandem advanced with their single two-set win over a team from Venezuela on Wednesday.

USA’s HUGHES/ROSS
Another one of the top women’s entries is USA’s Ross, who won the inaugural USA national collegiate sand volleyball pairs championship this past spring. Ross, who is playing with Sara Hughes for the first time in Halifax, was a double gold-medal winner in 2010, winning the youth world championship with Jane Croson in Porto, Portugal and the junior worlds with Tara Roenicke in Alanya, Turkey.

Playing in their first tournament together, Ross/Hughes earned their first-round bye with their Thursday win over Mexico’s 14th-seeded Maura Martinez/Claudia Rios, 21-17, 23-21 in 34 minutes. 

Down 19-21 in the second set, Ross/Hughes rallied by outscoring Martinez/Rios, 6-2 to end the set and earn their third pool play match victory.

Said Ross Thursday following her team’s third win in the tournament, “Even though we have never played together before, we have known each other several years and we are starting our partnership very well overall. In all three of our wins in pool play we started strong in the first set and then in the second set of the last two against Australia and Mexico our opponents rallied but we closed them both out so we didn’t have to go three sets.  Now the tournament gets really tough and there are a lot of very good teams here in Halifax.”

CANADA’s HUMANA-PAREDES
Among the other top returning women’s players is Canada’s Humana-Paredes who won the silver medal in Halifax last year with Victoria Altomare. Humana-Paredes is playing this year’s event with Taylor Pischke.

In winning their abbreviated pool, Humana-Paredes/Pischke, who two weeks ago won the Canadian National Championship, earned their second win on Thursday, defeating Israel’s 16th-seeded Yael Lotan/Viktoria Nesterov, 21-9, 21-7 in just 24 minutes.

Humana-Paredes commented after her team’s impressive win, “There is a lot of tough competition here in Halifax. It’s going to be a dog fight, but a good one. Playing with Taylor makes us a different team than in the past.  Taylor is a permanent blocker and is a huge force and I am a defender and a finesse player so I think we will be a factor as the tournament moves forward.  We definitely have a good start in winning our pool and putting us into the second round of elimination.”

As the host nation, Canada has three men’s teams and four women’s teams qualified into their respective 32-team fields. Besides Humana-Paredes and new teammate Pischke, the three other women’s teams representing Canada are Julia Hamer/Charlotte Sider, Sophie Bukovec/Julie Longman and Meaghan MacDougal and Hillary Monette. In pool play, Humana/Paredes/Pischke were 2-0, Hamer/Sider were 1-2 and both Bukovec/Longman and MacDougal/Monette were 0-3.

GERMANY’s AULENBROCK
In addition to Switzerland’s Betschart, USA’s Ross and Canada’s Humana-Paredes, among the top women’s players In Halifax is Germany’s Aulenbrock who won the women’s gold medal at the 2009 FIVB SWATCH Youth World Championships in Alanya with Victoria Bieneck. Aulenbrock, who finished fifth in Halifax last year with Isabell Schneider, is teamed this year with Behrens.

KARAPISCHENKO/DABIZHA
Both finishing in ninth place in Halifax last year with different partners, teamed together this year are Russia’s Karapischenko, 19, and Dabizha, 18, both veteran international players despite their young ages. Karapischenko won the silver medal in 2009 (Alanya, Turkey) and 2010 (Poroto, Portugal), the bronze in 2008 (the Hague, Netherlands) and finished ninth in 2007 (Myslowice, Poland) at the FIVB SWATCH Youth World Championships as well as a 25th (Modena, Italy) at the FIVB SWATCH Junior World Championships.

Dabizha, on the other hand, won the bronze medal (Larnaka, Cyprus) in 2012 and had ninth place finishes in 2010 (Porto, Portugal) and 2011 (Umag, Croatia) at the FIVB SWATCH Youth World Championships.

FROM HERE TO...
The gold medal team in each gender in Halifax will also be rewarded by the FIVB and the organizers with wild cards and free transportation and an automatic main draw berth in a FIVB SWATCH World Tour event in 2012 or 2013. A total of 2,000 tons of special sand was transported to the SEA stadium complex to build the four competition and two practice courts for the venue, which includes the 3,000-seat featured SEA stadium center court.

MORE INFO, PLEASE
A total of 2,000 tons of special sand has been transported to the Salter Sand complex to build the four competition and two practice courts for the venue, which includes the 3,000-seat stadium center court. Single day tickets for the event are on sale through the event website at www.sandjamhalifax.ca. Event information is available at 902.444.3773. Children, five and under, are free for the entire event when accompanied by a ticketed adult.

Produced by Canada’s Sports and Entertainment Atlantic (SEA) in association with Volleyball Canada and the Lausanne, Switzerland-based Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB), more information is available at www.fivb.org with live streaming from center court available at www.sandjamhalifax.ca.

HEAVENLY HALIFAX
A founding province of Canada, Nova Scotia is nearly surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, and is known for its high tides, lobster, fish, blueberries and apples. Halifax was the site of the first British town in Canada, founded in 1749. Since then, the area has evolved to be home for charming fishing villages, farming communities and Atlantic Canada's largest city. Halifax, the gateway to Atlantic Canada, has flourished as a prominent port city. Halifax was founded in 1749 by Governor Edward Cornwallis and 2,500 settlers to act as a naval and army base to protect the area, creating Canada’s first permanent British town on the world’s second-largest natural harbor. The peninsula, which Halifax is located on, is 4.5 miles wide and two miles long.