The Beach Ferns Olympic dream is over after Saturday night’s tense semi-final loss to Continental Cup hosts China in Ningbo.
Oliva Macdonald and Danielle Quigley were beaten 21-11, 21-13 by Sh. T. Cao/Zhu Lingdi before Alice Zeimann and Shaunna Polley got Aotearoa on the board with a 21-18, 21-18 win over J. Zh. Wang/J. Dong.
The decisive third match saw Zeimann and Polley faced up to Sh. T. Cao/J. Dong for a berth in the final against Japan.
In a very tight contest, the Chinese took the first set 23-21 before the Kiwis rebounded to edge the second set 24-22. The match could have gone either way in a see-saw third set, but the hosts eventually prevailed 15-13.
China progress to the final against Japan for a berth at the Paris Olympics.
The Beach Ferns reached the semi-final thanks to a 2-0 victory over Vanuatu on Friday. Olivia Macdonald and Danielle Quigley were first-up 21-15, 21-15 winners over Joe/Matauatu before Alice Zeimann and Shaunna Polley claimed a 21-17, 21-17 victory over Toko/Lawac.
Beach Blacks
The Beach Blacks’ hopes of Olympic qualification ended on Friday after a 2-1 loss to Indonesia.
Brad Fuller and Ben O'Dea fought hard in the decider of the Beach Blacks' Continental Cup quarter-final but ultimately fell 2-1 to Indonesia on Friday night.
The Kiwis battled back from a set down, claiming a thrilling second set 26-24 but Bintang/Sofyan clinched a place in the semi-final for their country with a 15-11 third-set win.
Earlier, O’Dea and Fuller were 2-0 winners in their match with Jack McManaway and Tom Reid edged 2-1 in their clash to set up the decider.
The men’s final will be contested between Australia and China.
High Performance Coach Jason Lochhead said "sport can be brutal, but if it wasn't then the wins wouldn't feel as good.
"I'm proud of the effort everyone put into this run. We played some great volleyball but just a couple of things didn't go our way and sometimes it's just not your day.
"It hurts that it was on this day but we will come back stronger."
