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Brazilian teams sweep women's event at St. Petersburg beach volleyball tourney

 
Agatha Bednarczuk, center, and teammate Barbara Seixas, left, win the St. Petersburg Grand Slam beach volleyball tournament.
Agatha Bednarczuk, center, and teammate Barbara Seixas, left, win the St. Petersburg Grand Slam beach volleyball tournament.
Published June 22, 2015

ST. PETERSBURG — With qualifying points for the 2016 Olympics in their country on the line, it seemed fitting that the Brazilian women made a good showing on the final day of the St. Petersburg Grand Slam at Spa Beach.

Brazilian teams swept the podium at the beach volleyball tournament Sunday.

Third-seeded Agatha Bednarczuk and Barbara Seixas defeated second-seeded Maria Antonelli and Juliana Felisberta for the gold, and Tiana Lima and Fernanda Alves beat Germany's Karla Borger and Britta Buthe for the bronze.

"It's important for the beach volleyball of Brazil," Lima said. "Brazil (has) a lot of good teams."

Next year's Olympics are in Rio de Janeiro.

It was Brazil's 22nd women's podium sweep — a record for FIVB, the sport's world governing body — and the first since Nov. 1, 2014. After seven women's events on the FIVB World Tour, the past five straight have been won by three teams from Brazil.

Bednarczuk and Seixas maintained their position as the world's top-ranked team heading into next week's world championships in the Netherlands. They won all seven matches in the tournament without losing a set.

It was the fifth straight tournament won by a Brazilian team.

In the semifinals, Bednarczuk and Seixas beat Lima and Alves 24-22, 21-19, and Antonelli and Felisberta beat Borger and Buthe 21-14, 21-17.

The final was a rematch of last week's in Norway that was won by Antonelli and Felisberta.

Ten points into the match, Felisberta was given a yellow card after arguing with the referee and a member of the other team.

"One thing that the world tour has that is a really positive thing is that each week we have a new opportunity to review what we have done in the last week and each week you can do better than you did yesterday and the past week," Seixas said. "I think we've learned a lot with the last game against them."

Bednarczuk and Seixas won the first set 23-21, then closed the deal by winning the final three points of the second set to win 21-19.

"It was a difficult game," Bednarczuk said. "It was (a) 2-0 (win) but … the sets (were long), so we (are) very happy now."

Said Seixas: "With the Olympic ranking, we have a big fight with the Brazilians about this, so for us this first place is very important, as we can only have two teams in the Rio Olympics.

"We know the other Brazilian teams are very good, and we always are really close to each other. So with results like this, it can maybe make a difference in the end in our desire to make the Olympics next year in our own country."

Information from Times wires was used in this report.