FAN favorite Sofía González and María Belén Carro of Spain survived a nailbiter against Piper Ferch and Madison Shields of the US, 21-18, 14-21, 20-18 on Saturday in the Round of 12 in the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Challenge Nuvali in the City of Santa Rosa.
The world No. 66 and coming off victory in the Copa de La Reina Madrid, the Spaniards came out on top from an evenly-matched battle at the Nuvali Sand Courts where Gonzalez notched 24 attack points and Carro had 11 against Shields’ 24 and Ferchs’ 11.
Gonzalez and Carro set up a showdown with world No. 84 Malgorzata Ciezkowska and Urszula Lunio of Poland, who beat Hailey Harward and Kylie DeBerg of the US, 21-14, 21-15.
The top-rated men’s pair of Javier and Joaquin Bello also sustained their fine run and continued to thrill the fans as the English twins disposed of Dutch rising stars Leon Luini and Ruben Penninga, 21-18, 21-19, in the tournament organized by the Philippine National Volleyball Federation under Ramon “Tats” Suzara, who is also president of the Asian Volleyball Confederation and Executive Vice President of the world governing body Federation Internationale de Volleyball.
Javier had 18 of their 26 attack points, while Joaquin scored four of the pair’s five blocks.
“Whenever you’re the No. 1 seed in any international tournament and to have a target on your back is sometimes difficult but for us we think of the same way every tournament,” Joaquin said.
“Regardless of what seed we are or what the expectation is if we go game by game, point by point, stay together united and just fight point by point, that’s what we do,” he added.
Germany’s Sagstetter brothers Jonas and Benedikt, who eliminated the Alas Pilipinas pair of James Buytrago and Rancel Varga, cruised past No. 44 Vinicius and Heitor of Brazil, 21-13, 21-18.
Ferch and Shields earlier held off Aleksandra Wachowicz and Julia Radelczuk, 21-16, 17-21, 15-13.
