Two teams from the country survived the qualifier and will join Sorum/Mol in the main draw

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Lunde and Ulveseth posted a pair of qualifier wins to advance to their first Beach Major Series main draw

Norwegian beach volleyball had quite a day in Florida as two teams from the Nordic country progressed from the qualification tournament and will compete in the main draw of the 2018 Fort Lauderdale Major, the first Beach Major Series event of the year.

The country will have three teams competing when the main draw starts on Wednesday as the male duo of the cousins Mathias Bernstein and Hendrik Mol advanced to join Anders Mol and Christian Sorum while the female tandem of Ingrid Lunde and Oda Ulveseth will be Norway’s sole representative in the elite.

Bernstein and Mol assured their spots with a couple of impressive wins on Tuesday’s qualifier. First, they took down Germany’s Nils Ehlers and Lorenz Schumann in three sets (21-11, 19-21, 15-6). Later, they prevailed over Poland’s Marius Prudel and Jakub Szalankiewicz, the winners of last week’s World Tour three-star event in Kish Island, in straight sets (24-22, 21-11).

“We are so happy to be in the main draw in this tournament, it’s so beautiful here and it’s one of the best tournaments this season,” Bernstein said. “We haven’t played together very much as Hendrik was injured for a long time, so it’s crazy that we beat this team, it’s unbelievable. I can’t explain how happy I am. We have three teams from Norway in the main draw, I think it’s the first time in five or six years.”

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Mathias Berntsen & Hendrik Mol 🇳🇴 say they are amazed that they are in the #FTLMajor main draw! #BeachWorldTour https://t.co/QfH0vxULan

In the women’s tournament, Lunde and Ulveseth started their campaigns with a tie-breaker (16-21, 23-21, 18-16) victory over Lithuania’s Ieva Dumbauskaite and Monika Povilaityte. In the second round, another tight win, this one in two sets (21-18, 22-20), against Switzerland’s Laura Caluori and Dunja Gerson to book their places on their first-ever Beach Major Series main draw.

“It feels really good to get into the main draw,” Ulveseth said. “It was a tough game, and both of us were really nervous.  We managed to not get too stressed out after they came back when we had the lead, so that was fun. The key was to stay calm and not to get stressed out by mistakes.”

You can watch matches of all three Norwegian teams in the Fort Lauderdale Major main draw live on BeachStream. Click here to register.