Australia’s men’s beach volleyballers have overcome a scare from Rwanda to prevail 21-16, 21-18 and seal top spot in pool B.
Paul Burnett and Chris McHugh haven’t dropped a set across three games, but had to fight back from 14-16 down in the second set against Venuste Gatsinzi and Olivier Ntagengwa.
Australia’s Paul Burnett spikes the ball to Rwanda’s Venuste Gatsinzi (left) during their preliminary pool B beach volleyball match.Credit:AP
Topping the group means Australia will play a third-placed qualifier from one of the other two groups in their quarter-final.
“Probably not the best game we’ve ever played, but to be able to guts it out and come away with the win, we take some confidence from that,” Burnett said afterwards. “But we definitely want to step it up in the next game.”
McHugh and Burnett struggled on serve in the wind on Wednesday, recording 11 service faults between them.
In the first set, they kicked out to a 6-2 lead and maintained at least a four-point buffer from there.
The second set proved far tougher as the lead changed multiple times. The Australians were trailing 14-16, but McHugh pulled through when it counted, perfectly placing a powerful spike. From there, the Australians reeled off five of the final seven points.
AAP