Today in Sanya, China main draw action continues in the 2011 FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour. Photo: fivb.orgWe have some very interesting matchups today in the main draw action in Sanya, China. We have the upper bracket matchups below. Due to the seedings and results of the begining of the main draw, at this round we have an all USA match between May-Treanor-Walsh and Akers-Branagh. Live stream links and upper bracket matchups below.
Upper Bracket
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Larissa-Juliana | vs. |  |
Keizer-Van Iersel |
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May-Treanor-Walsh | vs. | |
Akers-Branagh |
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Xue-Zhang Xi | vs. |  |
Khomyakova-Vozakova |
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Talita-Antonelli | vs. |  |
Candelas-Garcia |
Live Streams
Australia's Becchara Palmer digs a ball during FIVB Sanya qualification round. Photo: fivb.orgToday sees the first games of the main draw on the 2011 FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour from Sanya, China. I'm excited to get the live stream going on my TV. Below are the live streams:
Update: after the jump, the breakdown of some of today's action:
Live Streams
Geeske Banck of Germany digs a ball during country quota. Photo: fivb.org
There is a twelve hour time difference between Sanya, China and Kill on Two in Toronto. This is great for doing the math on the time zone differences, but isn't that great when... actually wanting to watch a match. With Marie and Annie dropping out of FIVB Sanya, Canadians are left with three teams still in the tournament. In the first round, team Rodrigue-MacTavish will face off against the 38th seed from Austraila, Marie-Kelly. Team Valjas-Whitaker are matched up against the 30th seeded French team of Longuet-Larche. Liz Maloney and Heather Bansley got a bye in the first round and will play a team from the Netherlands in the second round later on in the day.
Live Streams
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 |
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452 | CAN | Heather Bansley/Elizabeth Maloney |
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94 | CAN | Julie Rodrigue/Kacie MacTavish |
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42 | CAN | Kristina Valjas/Caleigh Whitaker |
The women's podium at the 2011 FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour Brasilia Open. Photo: fivb.orgThe first event of the 2011 FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour from Brasilia, Brazil has concluded today with the final matches on the men's side of the tournament completing. The women's side of the event saw the #1 ranked Juliana/Larissa of Brazil take the gold over the Olympic defending champions, May-Treanor/Walsh of The United States. The US also claimed the last spot on the podium with Kessy/Ross clinching the bronze medal against fellow Americans Fendrick/Hanson.
The Americans also did quite well on the men's side of the tournament with the #1 ranked Rogers/Dalhausser claiming gold over the home crowd favourite of Alison/Emanuel of Brazil. The bronze medal match went in favour of Wu/Xu of China in a three set showdown.
None of the three Canadian teams in the tournament made the main draw, however with China on the horizon, we hope to see more Canadian representation at the international level.
From a spectator's perspective, this first event was fairly easy to follow. At any given time, there were three to five live streams going allowing fans to watch as many matches as possible. There were, however, hiccups with coverage. Unfortunately some of those live streams were hosted by online gambling websites that not only required registration to their website, but also required you to deposit money into your account to view the stream. This was an instant deterrent for those just wanting to watch volleyball. Let's face it they aren't in the live streaming business, they are in the gambling business. The other problem with the live streams was that TV blackout agreements made many of them blocked in certain countries. It's unfortunate that with the global volleyball community, who doesn't get that much television coverage as it is and is really starting to form a foundation with free live streaming video, is still at the mercy of television networks and government regulations.
Full Match Videos
The podium at NORCECA Dominican Republic Continential Cup. Photo: norceca.orgThe NORCECA Dominican Republic event has finished and Canada had another great showing. This event was a Continental Cup event. That means that two teams from the same country compete together, against two teams from another country. Whoever wins the majority of those four games moves on. If after four games there is a tie, a team of the players choice will play a golden set. That's right, the golden set is back and this time it's on the sand.
On the women's side of the competition, Cuba and Canada found themselves playing in the finals with the final decision coming down to a golden set.
Women's Teams
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CUB-A | Niriam Sinal/Ion Canet |
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CUB-B | Kirenia Reyna/Imara Esteves |
Live stream action continues today.
In professional beach volleyball action, the FIVB Brazil Open continues today with matches on both the women's and men's side of the tournament. On the women's side, the matchups are as follows:
Upper Bracket
| 60 | 21-Apr | 1 | May-Treanor-Walsh USA [7] | Winner of match #58 | |||
| 59 | 21-Apr | 15:30 | 1 | Larissa-Juliana BRA [1] | Winner of match #57 |
Lower Bracket
| 58 | 21-Apr | 11:00 | 2 | Fendrick-Hanson USA [22] | Goller-Ludwig GER [4] | ||
| 57 | 21-Apr | 11:00 | 1 | Kessy-Ross USA [8] | Talita-Antonelli BRA [3] |
Live streaming video of the FIVB Brazil beach volleyball event.We have more live streaming beach volleyball action from the FIVB Brazil event. Similarly to yesterday, two of the streams require registration, however we have posted the one free live stream here. They tend to pause the stream if the game is over, or if they are changing courts, so if it doesn't appear to work, you just have to wait for the next game to start. Enjoy.
Imara Esteves of Cuba shows the kind of effort that was necessary to compete against the United States in Tuesday competition. (photo: fivb.org)The Olympic Qualifying NORCECA event went into the second day of competition on Tuesday. The format takes two teams from each representing nation, and pit them against two teams from a competing nation, with the winning country sending both teams forward. It's a somewhat different format than usual, which generally includes single teams going on regardless of how their country-mates fare.
Full breakdown of Day 2 results and finals brackets after the jump:
Screen shot of the free live stream from FIVB Brazil.
We've found a couple live streams for the FIVB Brazil beach volleyball games. Some sites require registration, but one is up there for free.
Live stream feeds and links after the jump.
The Brazillian team of Larissa/Juliana will begin the 2011 FIVB beach volleyball season at home in Brazil. Photo: fivb.org
Women's Tournament April 17th - 22nd, 2011
Men's Tournament April 18th - 23rd, 2011
FIVB beach volleyball is back this week with the first tournament of the 2011 season. Starting off the tour in Brazil, teams representing 36 countries will compete of the six days of competition. With $190 000 up for grabs in the men's and women's tournaments each, professional beach volleyball teams worldwide are looking to start off their 2011 season strong. Not only is money a factor, but with next year's Olympics in London on the horizon, teams are also looking to have the best results possible so they can represent their countries next year in London.
More after the jump.