Berlin, Germany, June 12, 2008 - After placing 17th at the 2007 smart Grand Slam, Stephanie Pohl and Okka Rau were looking forward to this year's edition of the 2008 SWATCH FIVB World Tour event to start a string of successes to help the Germans to qualify for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. With a 21-18 and 21-16 win in 49 minutes over third-seeded Nicole Branagh and Elaine Youngs of the United States here Thursday morning, Pohl and Rau captured Pool C in the women's competition at the US$600,000 smart Grand Slam to advance to the 24-team single-elimination bracket. The 14th-seeded Germans also earned a "bye" for the first round of matches to be played Thursday afternoon along with three teams from Brazil, two American tandems, and Beach Volleyball pairs from Greece and Mexico as each team captured their pools in the seventh women's event on the 2008 SWATCH FIVB World Tour calendar. "This is great, especially playing before family and friends," said the 31-year Rau, who has been competing on the SWATCH FIVB World Tour since 2001 with Pohl. "Since we did not play very well last week in Poland, it is great to start this week with three wins. We like the pool play format as we are guaranteed at least three matches. We like to play a lot of matches each week." The 30-year Pohl felt her team has been "a roller-coaster this season" as the Germans had finished seventh, 13th, seventh and 17th in the previous four SWATCH FIVB World Tour starts in 2008 before being guaranteed a ninth for this week's smart Grand Slam. Pohl and Rau will play their first elimination Friday against either 13th-seeded Milagros Crespo/Imara Esteves Ribalta of Cuba or 27th-seeded Susanne Glesnes/Kathrine Maaseide of Norway. "We have played very consistently in all three of our matches this week," noted Pohl, who teamed with Rau to place ninth at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games. "Right now, we are taking it one match at a time. This is the first full field of the season, so it is great to be playing very well right now.” With Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh playing in their first SWATCH FIVB World Tour event this season, the reigning Olympic champions and the gold medal winners of the last two events in the German capital protected their top seeding to lead the field into the elimination rounds. The Americans captured Pool A with three wins and will play a team from either China or Japan in their first match Friday. Also earning first-round "byes" to advance to Friday's competition are fourth-seeded Ana Paula Connelly/Shelda Bede of Brazil (Pool D), fifth-seeded Renata Ribeiro/Talita Antunes of Brazil (Pool E), seventh-seeded Jen Boss/April Ross of the United States, 11th-seeded Vasso Karadassiou/Vassiliki Arvaniti of Greece (Pool F), 18th-seeded Mayra Garcia/Bibiana Candelas of Mexico (Pool B) and 26th-seeded Maria Antonelli and Vanilda Leao of Brazil (Pool G). Competing in Thursday's opening eight eliminations is second-seeded Juliana Felisberta Silva/Larissa Franca of Brazil along with the Chinese tandems of sixth-seeded Chen Xue/Xi Zhang and seventh-seeded Jia Tian/Jie Wang. All three teams were upset in their pools to finish second in the group competition. |
