Lessard and Martin sneak into playoff round, Redmann and Van Huizen upset sixth seeds on World Tour

 

MOSCOW- - Marie-Andrée Lessard of Ville LaSalle, Que., and Annie Martin of Sherbrooke, Que., lost both their matches Thursday but still advanced to the playoff round in women’s play at the fifth stop on the beach volleyball World Tour circuit.

 

Meanwhile in men’s play, Richard Van Huizen and Christian Redmann of Toronto, seeded 27^th, stunned sixth-seeds David Klemperer and Eric Koreng of Germany 21-15, 21-15 in their round robin opener.

 

‘’We were really prepared going into this match,’’ said Redmann, a season-best fifth with Van Huizen last year at the Moscow stop on the Tour.  ‘’We knew exactly what we were going to do against each guy and that paid off.  We went in with a business like attitude that we needed to win this match.  There’d been too many close losses.’’

 

The Canadians complete round robin play Friday against 11^th seeds Harley Marques Silva and Pedro Solberg Salgado of Brazil and 22^nd seeds Matthew Fuerbringer and Nicholas Lucena of the U.S.

 

‘’We have a very tough pool,’’ said Redmann.  ‘’We will have to be even better tomorrow (Friday) to beat the Brazilians and Americans.’’

 

The first place finisher in each of the eight pools advances directly to the round of 16 while the second and third place finishers enter a playoff draw to determine the other eight pairs for that round of 16.

 

In women’s play, Lessard and Martin fell on Thursday morning to sixth-seeds Sara Goller and Laura Ludwig of Germany 21-13, 16-21, 15-11 then were downed by 27^th seeds Gioria Daniela and Giulia Momoli of Italy 21-18, 20-22, 15-10.

 

“We gave everything we had in our match against the Germans to get the win,” said Lessard.  “We served extremely well but we saw why they have done really well this year.  We were pleased with how we fought in that match.  Against the Italians we fought hard again and played pretty well.  We’re very pleased to get into the playoffs and we are just going to keep building.”

 

The Canadians, seeded 22^nd, opened the round robin Wednesday upsetting 11^th seeds Austrians Doris Schwaiger and Stefanie Schwaiger of Austria.

 

The Germans earn top-spot in the pool at 3-0 and advance directly to the second round (round of 16) of the playoffs.  The Italians and Canadians place second and third respectively and head into the first round.

 

Lessard and Martin will face 13^th seeds Simone Kuhn and Nadine Zumkehr of Switzerland on Friday.