Walsh/Ross on top sweeping Fuzhou Open gold

 Fuzhou, China, April 24, 2016 – USA’s Kerri Walsh and April Ross pulled out their performance of the tournament to beat Germany’s Chantal Laboureur and Julia Sude 2-0 (21-15, 21-15) to win gold at the 2016 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Fuzhou Open.Laboureur/Sude knew they would have to bring their best if they wanted to come within reach of the gold. The two teams had played each other twice in the past two weeks, Walsh/Ross winning both times, firstly the bronze medal match at the Xiamen Open and again in Fuzhou Open pool play.The German pair quickly found themselves 6-2 down in the first, a lead that Walsh/Ross would hold throughout the set. The USA displayed some incredible saves and their ability to pull back into play seemingly impossible balls gave Laboureur/Sude a challenging time.Germany held their own with Laboureur snatching points rolling the ball over the net out of reach, but on every occasion the USA pair were solid in their comeback.USA’s Kerri Walsh and April RossThe second set witnessed some impressive rallies with the score tighter in the early stages, but again Walsh/Ross recovered every ball, Ross successfully smashing from way outside the side line to make 14-12. It was a performance for Laboureur/Sude that any team would be proud of, but Walsh/Ross were just outstanding to greatly deserve the gold, 2-0 (21-15, 21-15).   “It just feels so good to execute and we always want to win and sometimes we get caught up in winning so we don’t do the little things but today it was so fun, April played amazing defence. To win gold medals you need to play great defence and that’s what April did today,” said Walsh.“We started this tournament really rough, it took us a long time to get into a rhythm and I’m just so proud how we hung together and we battled and we got better every match and this is the best we played I think in …

continue reading in source www.fivb.org