It may not have been perfect but it will do as brothers Sam and Ben O'Dea from Tauranga defeated Cyprus 2-1 in the first beach volleyball match ever staged at a Commonwealth Games.
Sam, 27, and Ben, 25, were expected to win comfortably but the tenacious pairing of Dimitris Apostolou and Georgios Chrysostomou surprised the large crowd by taking the first set 21-16 on the Coolangatta beachfront today.
The more inexperienced pair from Cyprus seemed to adapt to the crosswind conditions better than the Kiwis and took the first set relatively comfortably.
Both O'Dea brothers made two service faults each in the first set to none by Cyprus which proved crucial in the momentum of the set. The Cyprus pair also had a serving advantage when it came to speed with their average speeds 8km/h to 10km/h quicker than the Kiwis.
The second set was a different story with the O'Dea boys more accurate with their serving and Ben O'Dea dominating in attacks. But the Cyprus pair showed that being shorter is not necessarily a negative in beach volleyball by sticking point to point with the taller Kiwis through the tense set.
