FIVB: Sanya Preview
The next stop on the 2011 FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour is in Sanya, China.The 2011 FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour invades Sanya, China today for the second event of the 2011 FIVB season. Country quota matches will take place on Tuesday, and Canada will be a part of them. The Sanya Open is a female only FIVB event and four Canadian women's duos are registered. This is the first FIVB event of the season for three of those pairings with the team of Julie Rodrigue and Kacie MacTavish being the only team that competed last week in Brazil. Here are a list of the Canadian teams and their respective entry points.
Canadian Teams
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860 | CAN | Marie-Andrée Lessard/Annie Martin |
|
452 | CAN | Heather Bansley/Elizabeth Maloney |
|
94 | CAN | Julie Rodrigue/Kacie MacTavish |
|
42 | CAN | Kristina Valjas/Caleigh Whitaker |
Other Teams to Watch
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2740 | BRA | Larissa França/Juliana Felisberta da Silva |
 |
1210 | USA | Misty May-Treanor/Kerri Walsh |
|
1440 | USA | Jennifer Kessy/April Ross |
 |
2280 | CHN | Chen Xue/Xi Zhang |
Yes I do realize that I just picked last week's podium and the home team. This is why: Juliana and Larissa are still the number 1 ranked team in the world and proved that with their gold medal win last week. Misty and Kerri showed the world last week that their time apart over the last few years is a distant memory as they were able to place second in Brazil including taking a set from the current World Champions. Jennifer and April won bronze last week and have been on the podium in Sanya each of the three years the event has been held. Chen Xue and Xi Zhang are the Sanya defending champions, the home crowd favourite and are the third ranked team in the world. Expect them to come out strong to revenge their 7th place finish last week in Brazil.
Live Streams, Results and Brackets
As always, check back to Kill on Two for live streaming video links, results and our final day tournament brackets.
When checking in on the times of the matches for the round of qualification, I noticed that one of our Canadian teams has been removed from the entered teams list on the FIVB website. Marie-Andrée Lessard/Annie Martin has been removed from the team list of participating teams.