Brothers Sam and Ben O’Dea today scored their fourth successive win in the men’s beach volleyball competition to earn a semi-final berth.
The New Zealanders beat the Trinidad and Tobago pair of Daneil Williams and Daynte Stewart 21-15, 21-14 in 37 minutes.
The O’Deas have now beaten Cyprus, Mozambique, England and Trinidad and Tobago.
In the semi-finals they meet the powerful Canadian pair of Sam Schachter and Sam Pedlow, who have yet to drop a set.
There wasn’t such good news for New Zealand in the women’s beach volleyball quarter-finals when the pairing of Shaunna Polley and Kelsie Wills were surprisingly outplayed by Cypriots Mariota Angelopoulou and Manolina Konstantinou.
The Cypriots benefited from a high number of New Zealand errors and won 21-10, 21-17 in 38 minutes. The first set was one-sided, but the second was a see-sawing affair in which the standard of play rose noticeably.