Mount Maunganui Beach semifinals and finals to be streamed live on YouTube
The sand courts in Mount Maunganui Beach (source: volleyballnz.org.nz / phototek.co.nz)
The first Futures event of the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour 2023 season is set to take place from Thursday through Sunday (March 16 – 19) in Mount Maunganui Beach and it is the first world-level beach volleyball tournament ever to take place in New Zealand.
Sunday’s semifinals and medal matches will be streamed live on the **Beach Volleyball World YouTube channel**.
25 men’s and 18 women’s pairs from 10 different countries will compete at the tournament in the north of New Zealand. The US$ 10,000 prize money event will start with Thursday’s single-elimination qualifiers, which will determine four men’s and four women’s duos to join the 12 teams per gender seeded directly into the main draw.
In each gender, a 16-team main draw will feature a modified pool play system with the top three duos in each four-team pool advancing to the knockout stage. The pool winners will progress directly to the quarterfinals, while the pool runners-up and the third-placed pairs will play in the eighthfinals. Main draw action starts on Friday and will last through Sunday, when the semifinals and the medal matches will be played.
Alice Zeimann on the court in Mount Maunganui Beach (source: volleyballnz.org.nz / phototek.co.nz)
New Zealand’s Shaunna Polley & Alice Zeimann are headlining the women’s draw in Mount Maunganui Beach. For the currently ranked 41st team in the world and reigning Asian champions, it will be the third consecutive week to compete at the same venue. Last week Polley & Zeimann triumphed as 2023 New Zealand Beach Tour champions, after winning three golds and a silver out of the four national tour stops held. They topped the women’s podium at both tournaments held in Mount Maunganui Beach, including last week’s Finals. In addition, Zeimann claimed the Most Valuable Player award. It will be Polley & Zeimann’s second season on the Beach Pro Tour. Last year they managed to finish fifth at all three Futures tournaments they attended. They also appeared at several Challenge and Elite16 events.
Two Australian pairs, Georgia Johnson & Jasmine Fleming and Brittany Kendall & Caitlin Bettenay, complete the top three in the women’s bracket. Both of these teams took part in the two Torquay tournaments in November, with Johnson & Fleiming finishing fifth at the Challenge event and…
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