Beach Volleyball Aussies knocked out in Brasilia Beach Volleyball Open
23 Apr 2009
AIS Beach Volleyball athletes Sam Boehm and Chris McHugh faced a challenging task in the first round of qualifying in the Brasilia Open, Brazil.
After winning gold just over a week ago in the Thailand Asian Tour event, Boehm and McHugh got off to a promising start in the first set, with the score line reading 10-10 early on.
The first set technical time-out came with the score line at 10-11. After the break, the Brazilian team of Rodrigo and Bernardo took charge of the set winning 21-12.
Set two was quite similar to the first, with the Australians showing promising signs early on, with the Boehm and McHugh ahead 11-10 at the first technical time out.
However, the Australian pair struggled to handle the relentless pressure from the Brazilians on their home centre court, finally going down 21-17 in front of a parochial Brazilian crowd.
The Brasilia Open is the first tournament of the 16 event FIVB World Tour season, that spans April to October.
Next week, the World Tour continues with the Shanghai Open, Shanghai, China (28 April – 3 May).
Australia will be represented by four teams:
Men
Sam Boehm and Chris McHugh
Luke Campbell * and Casey Grice *
Women
Becchara Palmer and Heike Jensen
Alice Rohkamper and Louise Bawden *
Coaching Staff
Craig Marshall and Carlos Galletti
* denotes first International World Tour event for this athlete
