Top seeds off to flying start in Madrid

The pool stage of the 1-Star FIVB World Tour held at Parque Deportivo Puerta de Hierro in Madrid finished on Friday with great results for the home teams of Spain, with four duos progressing to the elimination rounds. The top seeds lived up to their status to claim their spots in the second round as well.

Paula Soria and Belén Carro used the home advantage to come from behind against Finnish sisters Ida and Sara Sinisalo, thus securing top spot in Pool A. The only non-European duo in Madrid, the Chilean players Chris Vorpahl Villablanca and María Francisca Rivas Zapata won two tough matches against Italy’s Erika Ditta/Sara Leoni and Spain’s Tania Moreno Matveeva/Ana Vergara to get a spot in the second round.

Ángela Lobato and Sofía González, a newly formed Spanish tandem, delivered a great performance to win two close and hard games. In Pool D, Slovenia’s Tjasa Kotnik and Tajda Lovsin managed to get past over their two rivals as well.  

The competition will continue on Saturday at the court named after Olympian and Spanish Beach Volleyball star Elsa Baquerizo to define the eventual semi-finalists.