Belgian women's beach volleyball team advances on the Olympic qualifying list

(BEIJING, June 20) -- Belgium's Liesbet Van Breedam and Liesbeth Mouha made a three-spot advancement on the Olympic qualifying list after Thursday's matches at the Henkel Grand Chelem in Paris, as reported by the FIVB website.

The 20th-seeded Van Breedam and Mouha beat 24th-seeded Alexandra Shiryaeva and Natalya Uryadova of Russia 21-18 and 23-21 in 45 minutes, securing a ninth place in standings.

Then the Belgian duo went on to play 11th-seeded Tyra Turner and Rachel Wacholder of the United States for Saturday's semifinal spot.

Van Breedam and Mouha beat the Americans in the qualifier of the 2007 Norwegian Grand Slam in Stavanger. Two weeks ago Turner and Wacholder posted a victory over the Belgians in FIVB SWATCH World Championships Poland stop.

Van Breedam and Mouha entered this week's SWATCH FIVB World Tour Grand Slam Paris stop with a total Olympic qualifying score of 1,470 points. But after posting a total of four wins out of six matches this week, they managed to pocket an extra 200 points, surpassing Simone Kuhn/Lea Schwer of Switzerland, Chiaki Kusuhara/Mika Teru Saiki of Japan and Morgane Faure/Virginie Sarpaux of France, ranking 20th on the Olympic qualifying list.