Olympic field is finalized - Articles

The intensity was at fever pitch Friday at the FIVB Hamburg Major. The teams on the Olympic bubble were fighting to create or consolidate their positions in the top 17. It set up Saturdays quarterfinals, which will be live streamed here: The finals will be tape delayed and broadcast on NBCSHD/CSNEHD Sunday, 4 p.m. ET. Live scoring can be found here: For the women, the top two Brazilian teams are facing each other in Agatha Bednarczuk/Barbara Seixas vs. Larissa Franca/Talita Antunes, while Americans Kerri Walsh Jennings/April Ross face local favorites Laura Ludwig/Kira Walkenhorst of Germany. For the men, it will be Alison Cerutti/Bruno Oscar Schmidt of Brazil vs. Juan Virgen/Lombardo Ontiveros of Mexico, Phil Dalhausser/Nick Lucena of the U.S. vs Casey Patterson/Jake Gibb of the U.S., and Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen of the Netherlands vs. Pablo Herrera/Adrian Gavira of Spain. Konstantin Semenov/Viacheslav Krasilnikov of Russia have advanced to the semifinals, because Markus Bockermann/Lars Fluggen of Germany have withdrawn. Women Americans Lauren Fendrick/Brooke Sweat (4,470 Olympic points) booked their tickets to Rio. Once Jennifer Kessy/Emily Day failed to advance, Fendrick/Sweat cemented their 15th-place Olympic ranking when Evgeniya Ukolova/Ekaterina Birkova of Russia (3,950 Olympic points) and Fan Wang/Yuan Yue of China (4,150 Olympic points) were eliminated in 17th, and Ana Gallay/Georgina Klug of Argentina (4,100 Olympic points) were eliminated in ninth. Gallay/Klug’s ninth-place finish will be enough to pass Wang/Yue to reach a 16th place Olympic ranking. Walsh-Jennings/Ross had to win three matches today to reach the semifinals against Ludwig/Walkenhorst (Germany). Walsh/Jennings advanced over Jamie Broder/Kristina Valjas (Canada) 21-17,...

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