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.
"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.
"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."
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
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.
