• Volleyball Empowerment has supported Chile and Paraguay’s beach volleyball with a combined total of CHF 275,500
• Paraguay’s Michelle Valiente & Giuliana Poletti celebrated the women’s gold
• Chile’s Maria Rivas Zapata & Amanda Recart took the women’s bronze
• Chile’s Noe Aravena & Vicente Droguett topped the men’s podium
• Brazilian pairs collected both silver medals; Argentina claimed the men’s bronze
Representatives of Paraguay and Chile, two federations whose beach volleyball programmes benefit from FIVB Volleyball Empowerment support, continued to shine on the CSV Beach Volleyball South American Tour as the continental circuit visited Santo Angelo in Brazil last week. Paraguay’s Michelle Valiente & Giuliana Poletti triumphed in the women’s tournament and Chile’s Noe Aravena & Vicente Droguett earned the men’s trophy. Another Chilean duo, Maria Rivas Zapata & Amanda Recart, made the women’s podium with bronze. The remaining medals went to Brazil and Argentina.
Chile’s beach volleyball programme has so far been granted coach support of CHF 72,000, in addition to CHF 9,500 worth of beach volleyball equipment from Volleyball Empowerment, and Brazilian coach Adriano Bonina Cerqueira is in charge of their national duos. The women’s national beach volleyball teams of Paraguay have so far been supported with a total of CHF 180,000 in coach support from Volleyball Empowerment, and their national federation’s beach volleyball programme has also received another CHF 5,000 for national team coaches development and CHF 9,000 in beach volleyball equipment. Paraguay’s women’s national duos are coached by Lucelia Batista de Almeida.
The South American Tour women’s medalists in Santo Angelo (Photo credits: CSV)
Paraguay’s Valiente & Poletti made a victorious run through the tournament, winning all five of their matches in straight sets. In their semifinal, the eighth-seeded team achieved a 2-0 (21-12, 21-16) win over fourth-seeded Rivas Zapata & Recart of Chile and went on to master a 2-0 (23-21, 21-10) sweep of the final against ninth-seeded Brazilians Carol Goerl & Juliana Simoes in front of about five thousand fans. The home pair from Brazil had won their semifinal in straight sets too, 2-0 (23-21, 21-17) against fifth-seeded Lisbeth Allcca Merino & Claudia Gaona Arevalo of Peru.
Chile’s Rivas Zapata & Recart won all three of their matches on the way to the semifinals and, after their run was stopped by Valiente & Poletti, they bounced back with a 2-0 (21-18, 21-12) victory over Allcca Merino & Gaona Arevalo in the bronze medal game.
Women’s results and standings
The South American Tour men’s medalists in Santo Angelo (Photo credits: CSV)
Noe Aravena & Vicente Droguett, seeded second in the men’s tournament, finished pool runners-up on a 3-1 win-loss record before going on a three-match winning streak to the top of the podium, crowned by a 2-1 (25-23, 16-21, 15-11) upset of top-seeded Adelmo Goncalves Folha Neto & Mateus De Paula Dultra of Brazil in the gold medal showdown. Before that, the Chilean duo battled their way through another three-set duel (pictured in the main photo; credits: CSV) in the semifinals to claim a 2-1 (21-12, 17-21, 17-15) victory over fifth-seeded Giuliano Massare Canillas & Gonzalo Melgarejo of Paraguay.
Third-seeded Bautista Amieva & Jose Sosaya of Argentina, who lost the other semifinal to the Brazilian team in straight sets, 2-0 (21-19, 21-15), recovered with a 2-1 (21-15, 16-21, 15-13) win over Giuliano & Gonzalo in the third-place match to grab the bronze.
Men’s results and standings
12 women’s and 10 men’s duos from six different countries took part in the Santo Angelo event. The next stop on the CSV Beach Volleyball South American Tour will be in Manaus, Brazil from 5 to 7 April.