Beach volleyballers lose cliff-hanger

The New Zealand women’s beach volleyball team lost an agonisingly close semi-final to Canada. 

The New Zealanders – Alice Zeimann and Shaunnu Polley – played a top-class match and only went down 29-31, 21-14, 19-17 after a see-sawing spectacle that had the large crowd engrossed.

The Canadians had not lost a set in the tournament and for the New Zealanders to hold three match points in the third set emphasised how well they played. 

Beach volleyball pundits were predicting a close one. When the teams met in preliminary action, Canada won 32-30, 12-10 after another epic first set.

The semi-final clash lasted 74 minutes and the first set took nearly half that time. It was a see-sawing set in which Canada led 19-15, only for New Zealand to level at 20-20. New Zealand reached nine set point nine times before sealing it.

The Canadians, the defending Games champions, came back strongly to take the second, but the third set, a tiebreak up to 15 (but requiring a two-point lead to win), was again extremely tight.

The standard of play remained at a high level throughout and it was to the New Zealanders’ credit that they were able to stay with the experienced Canadians.

The last few points were really a coin toss and unluckily for the New Zealanders, it went the Canadians’ way.

Polley said they’d take a lot from the match. “We went toe to toe with the team that won the last Commonwealth Games gold medal, two amazing athletes.

“We’re stoked about that, though obviously we’re disappointed we couldn’t quite get across the line.”

She said they were very encouraged to have been able to compete on the Canadians’ level for long periods of play.

New Zealand now meet Vanuatu in the bronze medal play-off.