Bieneck/Schneider and Taiana/Carol Horta set to compete for a spot in the gold medal match

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Bieneck and Schneider will compete in their first Beach Major Series semifinal

Two female teams coming from the qualification tournament will meet in a semifinal of a Beach Major Series event for the first time in the 2018 Fort Lauderdale Major as Germany's Victoria Bieneck and Isabel Schneider and Brazil's Taiana Lima and Carol Horta booked their places in the medal rounds this night in Florida.

It's just the second time that two qualifiers play each other in the semifinal of a Beach Major Series tournament with Poland's Piotr Kantor/Bartosz Losiak and Italy's Matteo Ingrosso/Paolo Ingrosso clashing in the 2015 Stavanger Major.

The duel between Germans and Brazilians will open the last day of the women’s tournament and is scheduled for 10am (EST) this Saturday at the Red Bull Beach Arena. The second semifinal will be played right after, with the medal matches set to start at 2.30pm.

Bieneck and Schneider, who are competing on their 11th World Tour tournament together and will play their first Beach Major Series semifinal in Fort Lauderdale, knocked out last year's silver medalists Agatha Bednarczuk and Duda Lisboa of Brazil with an impressive 21-16, 22-20 victory in the quarter-finals.

It was their sixth win in seven matches in Florida and arguably the most important of their careers so far.

"It's really crazy that two teams that played in qualification will be in the semfinals," Schneider said. "We have played a lot of matches, but I feel that we improved in each of them, so that was good for us. I'm proud of the attitude we showed in the court, but I hope we can play even better in the semifinal."

Carol Horta faces the German block at the Red Bull Beach Arena

Taiana and Carol Horta have played even more matches in the #FTLMajor as the duo started its campaign in the coutry-quota and already has seven wins in eight matches over the last five days. Their latest triumph happened in the quarter-finals, when they defeated Germans Karla Borger and Margareta Kozuch in a thrilling three-setter (21-19, 23-25, 15-13) at the Red Bull Beach Arena.

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A very happy @lima_tata 🇧🇷 on how important tonight's #FTLMajor quarterfinal win is to her. #BeachWorldTour @volei https://t.co/q8eHJXlvMC

The temporary team, formed because of the injury of Elize Maia, Taiana’s regular partner, had only one training session before they started to compete in Fort Lauderdale and immediately clicked, rushing from the country-quota to the medal matches in an impressive run.

Set to play on her fist Beach Major Series semifinal, the 25-year-old Carol Horta, who has only 18 World Tour tournaments under her belt, was very emotional after their most recent triumph.

“It’s unbelievable,” she said after the match. “This match was so nervous, they have been together for one year and we barely trained to compete here. When I called Taiana, we didn’t have many expectations but now that that we are we want to go further and play in the final. I don’t have much experience in the World Tour, so I’m enjoying every minute and every point here and I’m really excited to have such a fantastic partner as Taiana by my side.”

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