beach volleyball

Dominated by Australia's top seeds in both the mens and the womens the rest of the field was closely fought all weekend.

Tournament favourites Phoebe Bell and Jess Ngauamo won in straight sets after dominating the play at the net and the service line against Vanuatu's Loti Joe and Shershyn Toko. Set scores were 22-21, 21-12. The number one seeds did not drop a set all tournament and were very excited to take away the National Championships.

RNZI reports the country's top pairing of Linline Matauatu and Miller Pata defeated Colombia's Diana Rio and Yuli Ayala 21-8 21-10.

However Vanuatu's second team of Loti Joe and Sherysyn Toko were again beaten in straight sets, against Colombia's top duo, Galindo Andrea and Galindo Claudia, 21-14 21-12.

Both of the top pairings returned for the decisive golden set, with Matauatu and Pata prevailing 17-15.

Vanuatu beat Ukraine 2-1 in their opening match-up and will complete the round robin phase tonight against Austria, who are also unbeaten in Sochi.

RNZI reports the country's top pairing of Linline Matauatu and Miller Pata defeated Ukraine's Inna and Iryna Makhno 21-15, 21-17.

Loti Joe and Sherysyn Toko were then beaten in straight sets bt Valentyna Davidova and Ievgeniia Shchypkova.

That sent the match-up to a golden set, with Matauatu and Pata prevailing 15-6 against Inna Makhno and Shchypkova.

Vanuatu's next opponent in the pool stage is Colombia, who lost both of their opening matches against Austria.

RNZI reports nine countries are in Russia for the World Continental Cup finals, from which the top two teams will advance to the Rio Olympics.

Vanuatu's pairings of Linline Matauatu/Miller Pata and Loti Joe/Sherysyn Toko are seeded third and fourth in Sochi and face teams from Ukraine, Colombia and Austria in Pool B over the coming days.

The President of Vanuatu Volleyball, Debbie Masaufakalo believed they had a good shot at achieving their goal.

A total of 13 girl and 6 boy teams took part in the event earlier in the week which consisted of pool play followed by single elimination.

TFA treasurer, Andrew Markia said the competition was the first of its kind on the island of Tanna.

“Last year during the Vanuatu Football congress, Tafea Football Association has reported in its development plan for 2015 that they will start to introduce Beach Soccer and I must say that last Saturday’s tournament was an eye opener for many.” said Andrew Markia, TFA Treasurer.

“We have four teams took part in the competition with an Oldies team made up of all Tafea former players.”

Vanuatu has reclaimed top spot at the Oceania Beach Volleyball Championships in the Cook Islands.

Miller Pata and Linline Matauatu beat Australia's Mariafe Artacho Del Solar and Nicki Laird in the women's gold medal match, 21-13 21-15.

The Melanesian duo finished runners up at last year's event and got one back on their Australian rivals, who beat them in the Continental Cup earlier in the week.

Miller Pata, who was named tournament MVP, says it's good to be back on top.

The Vanuatu team needs to play in a minimum of twelve (12) FIVB World Tour Events each event costing the team close to 1 million vatu in airfares alone.

To date the girls have played in seven events and are currently ranked 22 in the Olympic ranking.

The top seventeen 17 teams (two from each country) will qualify through the FIVB World Tour Olympic ranking calculated by taking each team’s best 12 event finishes from January 1 to June 12, 2016.

The duo lost to Germany in three sets in the quarter finals 23-21, 15-21, 15-17, a day after upsetting the top-ranked team in the world, Agatha Bednarczuk and Barbara Seixa from Brazil.

Seixa said the Melanesians were better than them on the day and deserved all the credit for handling the wind better than they did.

Miller Pata says it's Vanuatu's greatest moment on the world tour and like a dream come true.

Their fifth-placed finish matches their best effort at a World Tour event.

They now head to Poland for another Grand Slam.