Fernanda and Barbara knockout Ross and Sweat and will face Taiana/Carol Horta for the gold

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Fernanda and Barbara will play their first Beach Major Series together

For the second straight year, teams from Brazil will take home both the gold and the silver medals of the women’s tournament of the Fort Lauderdale Major as Barbara Seixas and Fernanda Berti have advanced for the final of the first Beach Major Series event of the year, where they will face Taiana Lima and Carol Horta later this Saturday, at 4pm (EST).

Barbara and Fernanda, the only team still undefeated in the tournament, guaranteed their spots on their first-ever Beach Major Series final together after an amazing three-set (21-18, 26-28, 21-19) semifinal win over USA’s Brooke Sweat and Summer Ross.

Beach Volleyball Major Series on Twitter

matchpoint second women finalists - Brasil!!!! Check out the #livestream of the gold medal match at 4pm today!!! https://t.co/KKssdFGLXF https://t.co/faTWo8knTw

After the 79-minute duel and several match points saved by their opponents, the Brazilians celebrated their fifth straight victory in Florida this week.

“I feel great and really proud of what we’ve done this week,” Barbara commented. “We’ve been struggling and working hard to find our best way to play and I feel like we did it here in this tournament. We are looking forward to this Brazilian final. It’s great for our country to have two teams competing for the gold medal in such an important tournament.”

If Barbara and Fernanda have been together since September 2016, Taiana and Carol are playing their first tournament as a team in Fort Lauderdale. However, despite of the rivals’ good momentum, the 32-year-old blocker is confident they can prevail in the end.

“We have obviously never played against them together, but we know both very well individually,” said Fernanda, who was Taiana’s partner when they both last competed in a Beach Major Series final, in Gstaad, in 2015. “We know what they like to do, so it’s just about putting all this information together and we should have all we need.”

Beach Volleyball on Twitter

Fernanda & @barbaraseixas 🇧🇷 on playing for gold, how @summernoelross @BaSweat kept taking away match points & a quick comment on @lima_tata & Carol Horta in the final. #FTLMajor #BeachWorldTour https://t.co/YAYh6nc46O

If Brazil will take gold and silver, USA will fight for the bronze. The medal would have an even more special meaning for Sweat and Ross, who also reach the semifinals in the 2017 edition of the tournament, but went home empty-handed after being defeated by Germany’s Julia Sude and Chantal Laboureur.

Ironically, they will face another German in the bronze medal match, Victoria Bieneck and Isabel Schneider.

“It was a great match, back and forth, and I’m proud about the way we fought in the third,” she commented about the semifinal. “It could have gone either way. Summer was playing lights out, she really helped me offensively. I’m really proud of her, she really stepped up.”

“It’s going to another battle, the Germans are also playing great right now. We need to refocus and come ready to play again.”

The bronze medal match starts and 2.30pm EST and you can watch it live on BeachStream.

Beach Volleyball Major Series on Twitter

If you can't be here at #FTLMajor - you can watch all games live at our #BeachStream 📺🏐🇺🇸 https://t.co/WluNq81fW1 #hellosunny #GivesYouWings #wawa