Good start for Bansley and Maloney on World Tour stop

KLAGENFURT, Germany (July 18, 2012)  – Heather Bansley and Liz Maloney of Toronto posted a win and a loss after their first two matches in main draw action Wednesday at a stop on the FIVB World Tour circuit in beach volleyball.

The Canadian pair is second in its group behind sixth-seed Krystina Kolocova and Marketa Slukova of the Czech Republic,  undefeated after two matches.  The other two pairs in the group are 0-2.

Bansley and Maloney opened with a 27-25, 18-21, 11-15 victory over Natalie Cook and Tamsin Hinchely of Australia.  which clocked at 63 minutes, the longest match of the day.  The Czechs beat the Canadians a few hours later 21-19, 21-19.

The top team in each of the eight pools advances directly to the round of 16 while second and third play off for the other eight available spots in a one-match elimination.

On the men’s side, qualification got underway and for the second week in a row Christian Redmann of Toronto (in photo) and Ben Saxton of Calgary are headed to the main draw after posting two wins.

Josh Binstock of Toronto and Martin Reader of Comox, B.C., Canada’s Olympic entry lost their opening match and do not advance.

Information: www.fivb.org and www.volleyball.ca