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Home / Bay of Plenty Times

Commonwealth Games: Mount beach volleyball trio in quarter-finals

Scott Yeoman
By Scott Yeoman
Multimedia journalist·Bay of Plenty Times·
9 Apr, 2018 06:00 PM4 mins to read

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Mount Maunganui brothers Ben (right) and Sam O'Dea made it three wins from three when they beat England 2-1 on Sunday. Photo / Getty Images

Mount Maunganui brothers Ben (right) and Sam O'Dea made it three wins from three when they beat England 2-1 on Sunday. Photo / Getty Images

Three Mount Maunganui beach volleyball players have reached the quarter-final stage at the Commonwealth Games in Australia's Gold Coast.

Brothers Ben and Sam O'Dea made it three wins from three when they beat England 2-1 on Sunday.

And yesterday the New Zealand women beach volleyball pair, which include Mount Maunganui resident Kelsie Wills, did the same with a convincing 2-0 win over Vanuatu.

The O'Dea brothers will play either Scotland or Trinidad and Tobago in the quarter-finals today.

Read more: Commonwealth Games athlete's car stolen in Bay of Plenty while he competes in the Gold Coast
Tauranga's O'Dea brothers win second beach volleyball match at Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games
Commonwealth Games to showcase local sporting talent

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Speaking with the Bay of Plenty Times yesterday from the Gold Coast, Ben said the win against England was "awesome".

"The atmosphere in the stadium's pretty unreal so we kind of went into that game wanting to have a little bit more fun," the 25-year-old said.

Ben and Sam, 27, beat Cyprus 2-1 in the first beach volleyball match ever staged at a Commonwealth Games and then went on to beat Mozambique 2-1.

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"We hadn't really found our stride in the first two games," Ben said yesterday.

"We won our first two games but we made it a little bit tighter than we would have liked it to be against good competition but slightly weaker than England. So the aim going into [Sunday]night's game was just to have a bit of fun and that worked out really well for us."

He said they managed to come back "really strong" after losing the first set.

"And ended up taking the second and then having a pretty dominant performance in the third.

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"It's nice to be winning. We found a little bit of form [on Sunday]night, which was nice."

Ben said both Scotland and Trinidad and Tobago were decent teams and he and his brother were expecting to find out yesterday evening who they would be playing.

"We don't have any preference. As long as we're getting better with each game and we're having fun, I think we'll be a pretty hard team to play against for any team here."

Ben said they came to the Commonwealth Games to win every match.

"Our focus every time we play a tournament, especially here, is always on the next game in front of us and we want to win each game … we're not trying to look too far into the tournament."

He said they were ready to play anybody.

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Yesterday was a rest day for the O'Dea brothers and after training in the morning they took the afternoon off so that they would be fresh for today's quarter-final.

Ben said it was hot and muggy in the Gold Coast yesterday, with the temperature about 28C.

Despite struggling with injuries for most of this year, Ben said his body was feeling good and so was his brother's. "We're pretty tip top."

Kelsie Wills and her New Zealand beach volleyball partner Shaunna Polley beat Vanuatu 2-0 yesterday after winning their second game of the tournament on Sunday.

Mount Maunganui's Kelsie Wills. Photo / Getty Images
Mount Maunganui's Kelsie Wills. Photo / Getty Images

Wills is originally from Matamata and lives in Mount Maunganui. Polley is from Hamilton.

After defeating Rwanda 2-0 in their opening game, the duo, who are both 25, beat Singapore 2-0 on Sunday.

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Their quarter-final will also be played today.

Meanwhile, the New Zealand women's hockey team drew to Canada on Sunday 0-0 and were up against Australia last night at 11.30pm (NZ time).

Western Bay has four homegrown players - Sam Charlton, Rose Keddell, Frances Davies and Amy Robinson - in the Black Sticks squad.

Australia was the Black Sticks' final pool match.

In their opening game they beat Scotland 6-1 and in game two they eased past Ghana 12-0.

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Western Bay athletes in action today

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Athletics
3.12pm – Men's 200m heats start (Joseph Millar)

Beach volleyball
1pm – Men's quarter-finals start (Ben and Sam O'Dea)
5pm – Women's quarter-finals start (Kelsie Wills)

Live coverage: TVNZ free-to-air

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