Brazil and the United States will play for the women’s gold medals at the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Elite16 event in Cape Town, South Africa, after Talita Antunes/Thamela Coradello and Terese Cannon/Sarah Sponcil advanced to the final of the tournament held at the Grand Parade.

The Brazilians and Americans will face each other on Sunday, at 15.15 local time (13.30 GMT), in the final match of the tournament. At 13.00 local time (11.00 GMT), reigning world champions Eduarda ‘Duda’ Lisboa and Ana Patricia Ramos of Brazil and Lézana Placette and Alexia Richard of France will compete for bronze.

· Watch all matches at the Beach Pro Tour Elite16 event in Cape Town live on Volleyball TV.

Advancing to the gold medal match in Cape Town highlights the immediate success Talita and Thamela have had as partners. The two started the 2022 Beach Pro Tour season with other partners, but decided to join forces just a few days ago, after Talita ended her partnership with Rebecca Cavalcanti and Thamela saw her teammate Elize Maia sustain a knee injury that will sideline her for some time.

The two advanced from Pool B in Cape Town with two wins and one loss, but showed strength in the quarterfinals, coming from behind to top Americans Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss, who hadn’t lost a set in pool play, 2-1 (11-21, 21-17, 15-9). The Brazilians continued to play well in the semifinals, and prevailed over Placette and Richard in two sets (21-15, 21-19).

“We only had three training sessions together before this event,” Talita told Volleyball World. “But we have a lot of passion and we’re very happy to be playing with each other now. We’re both trying to do our best and communicating a lot to adjust the things we didn’t have the time to adjust in training. We’ll think about the final tomorrow when we wake up. I’ve been around long enough to know that tonight we need to enjoy it a little bit.”

The 22-year-old Thamela is the eighth international partner in Talita’s career and will be the sixth to win a medal alongside the 40-year-old veteran, who holds the record for the most international tournaments played among the women with 193.

“I couldn’t be any happier now,” Thamela added. “It’s incredible to be in the final and to be playing with Talita. What we’ve been able to do with just a few days of practice is already amazing. The wind has made an impact here, but we’re adjusting to it well.”

Cape Town Elite16 Entry List - Match Schedule and Results

For Cannon, 27, and Sponcil, 26, their presence in the gold medal match in Cape Town is an important breakthrough. They have appeared in nine Beach Pro Tour events this season and won a bronze medal at the Kuşadası Challenge in May, but were yet to play for gold.

“We’re really excited,” Cannon commented. “We came here and wanted to do well, so it’s really exciting to execute and get to the gold medal match. We’ll get our bodies rested, prepare for our opponents and hopefully come up with a good plan for the final.”

Their qualification was earned on a challenging day for the Americans, who had to triumph in two tie-breakers to make it through. Their 2-1 (21-17, 18-21, 15-9) quarterfinal victory against compatriots Megan Kraft and Emily Stockman was impressive, but Cannon and Sponcil did even better in the semifinals, reversing a 12-8 deficit in set three to stun world champions Duda and Ana Patricia in three sets (16-21, 21-16, 15-13).

“This is one of our first wins against a really top team,” Sponcil reflected. “Duda and Ana Patricia are an amazing team, so getting the win today and going forward is really important to our team. It’s been a long season and to get a good win like this at the end is such a good feeling.”

Quick links:
Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Cape Town Elite16
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