Revuelta and Candelas among undefeated teams

PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico, May 8, 2014 - Three women’s teams from Brazil, two from China and Germany and one each from Greece, Mexico, Netherlands and the United States combined to produce 11 undefeated teams Thursday, each winning both of their pool play matches with one remaining on Friday in the 32-team main draw at the double-gender US$150,000 FIVB Puerto Vallarta Open.

Friday’s exciting schedule includes three rounds of men’s elimination play in addition to the final women’s pool play matches on Playa Camarones in the heart of this Mexican resort city on the Pacific Ocean in the state of Jalisco.

Rewarding their home country fans with a pair of pool play victories to help lead the field of unbeaten women’s teams were Mexico’s ninth-seeded Martha Revuelta/Bibiana Candelas who recorded a pair of two-set victories Thursday over teams from Norway and Venezuela. On Friday, the popular Mexican team will finish pool play with a match against Germany’s eighth-seeded Jana Kohler/Anni Schumacher who split their two pool play matches on Thursday.

The other 2-0 teams besides Mexico’s Revuelta/Candelas following Thursday’s twin wins in pool play are Brazil’s Taiana Lima/Talita Antunes, Brazil’s Agatha Bednarczuk/Barbara Seixas, Brazil’s Juliana Felisberta/Maria Antonelli, China’s Chen Xue/Xinji Xia, China’s Fan Wang/Yuan Yue, Germany’s Isabel Schneider/Teresa Mersmann, Germany’s Julie Sude/Chantal Laboureur, Greece’s Panagiota Karagkouni/Vasiliki Arvaniti, Netherlands’ Laura Bloem/Marloes Wesselink and USA’s Heather Hughes/Christal Engle.

Mexico’s Candelas commented after her team’s victories Thursday, saying, “At first in both matches we were really nervous because they were our first two matches in the tournament and also because we know we are playing in our country. We will give our very best and hope to have great results on the court and make our country proud. I need to block better and help out Martha who played very well today.  I am living a dream to be able to compete on the FIVB World Tour in a sport I enjoy so much.”