Press release

London, Great Britain, August 5, 2012 – Numbers keep piling in and they keep adding up well for women’s stats both as a team and individual at this year’s beach volleyball competition of the London 2012 Olympic Games through Saturday’s Day 8, through the round of 16 matches.

All the crowd-pleasing, heart-pounding action is being held in the purpose-built, sold-out 15,000-seat stadium on the grounds of the iconic Horse Guards Parade as the majestic venue includes a portion of adjacent St. James Park in historic central London.

As women’s quarterfinals are set to begin Sunday evening, even more impressive team and individual official statistics continue to reflect the depth and quality of the field here at Horse Guards Parade.

By the end of play Sunday, a total of four teams in each gender will have advanced to semifinals which will be held for both genders on Tuesday, Aug. 7.

Again, through Saturday Day 8 of this Olympic Games competition, of the 46 women’s matches held, 26 were two-set matches with five seed breakthroughs with an average time of 35 minutes per match.  The othe 20 matches all went to the tie-break saw just four seed breakthroughs with an average time of 54 minutes.

In the team stats catagory, China’s second-seeded Chen Xue/Xi Zhang have the most aces as a team with 20, and tied for second are Italy’s seventh-seeded Greta Cicolari/Marta Menegatti and Austria’s Doris Schwaiger/Stefanie Schwaiger with 17 aces each.

In total blocks by a team, Russia’s 23rd-seeded Anastasia Vasina/Anna Vozakova lead with 20, second is Brazil’s fifth-seeded Maria Antonelli/Talita Antunes with 17 and third Netherlands’ Madelein Meppelink/Sophie van Gestel with 16 total.

In team attack success percentage, leading is USA’s fourth-seeded Jennifer Kessy/April Ross at 60% while second is China’s Xue/Zhang at 58% and third is Brazil’s top-seeded Juliana Felisberta Silva/Larissa Franca at 57%.

Austria’s Schwaiger sisters lead with 106 digs, second is Czech Republic’s Kristyna Kolocova/Marketa Slukova with 97 and third is USA’s third-seeded Misty May-Treanor/Kerri Walsh with 91 total for the team.

Individually for the tournament, Russia’s young suprise team of these Olympic Games, Vasina/Vozakova, lead three of six catagories and China’s Xue leads two. Vasina is leading blocks with 20 total while Vozakova leads in points scored with 96 and digs with 73.

China’s Xue leads with 14 total aces and attack success at 68%. Great Britain’s Zara Dampney leads the top serve speed with one of 93 km/h.

In points, third is China’s Zhang third with 90.

In addition to leading a team categories, Austria’s Schwaiger sisters, who finished fifth in the Beijing 2008 Olympics, are also among the individual tournament leaders as Doris Schwaiger is second in aces with 13 total and she is also third in digs with 62.

Third in aces for the tournament is Spain’s Elsa Baquerizo with 12.

In the serving speed catagory, behind Dampney in second is Germany’s Katrin Holtwick (82 km/h) and USA’s April Ross (81 km/h) and Germany’s Sara Goller (79 km/h). In total blocks, second behind Vasina is Brazil’s Talita Antunes and third is Netherlands’ Madelein Meppelink with 16. Second in attack success percentage behind Xue at 63 per cent is is Brazil’s Juliana and third is USA’s Ross at 62%.  Second behind Russia’s Vozakova in digs is Australia’s Cook with 65 total.

In some of the miscellaneous numbers, the longest women’s match through Thursday was one hour, nine minutes when Russia’s Ekaterina Khomyakova/Evgeniya Ukolova beat Canada’s Marie-Andree Lessard/Annie Martin 21-18, 28-30 and 15-13 on July 28. The shortest match length has been 28 minutes in three seperate matches, one each on July 28, July 30 and August 1.

The highest scoring two-set match is 82 recorded August 2 when Russia’s Khomyakova/Ukolova defeated Great Britain’s Dampney/Shauna Mullin, 25-23, 21-13 and the highest scoring three-set match is 128 was July 31 when Brazil’s Maria Antonelli/Antunes defeated Germany’s Sara Goller/Laura Laudwig, 21-19, 29-31 and 15-13 in one hour, five minutes.

The highest scoring women’s set so far was during Brazil’s Antonelli/Antunes three-set win over Germany’s Goller/Ludwig when the German’s won the second set 31-29.

Single-match leaders are aces—tie between Brazil’s Maria Antonelli and Switzerland’s Simone Kuhn with seven each; blocks—Russia’s Vasina has the top two individual matches with nine against China and eight against Switzerland and digs—Russia’s Evgenia Ukolova with 26 against Canada.

Women’s beach volleyball continues daily at Horse Guards Parade in the London 2012 Olympic Games until the medal matches on Wednesday, August 8.