THE top four teams who will contest the semi-finals of the JustBet/TVJ SN Beach Volleyball League were decided after the first stage of the Play-Off, which took place at the newly built beach volleyball courts at Fort Clarence over the weekend.

In the women’s division, the pair of Cherie Thompson and Renae Temple, from UWI Volleyball Club, won all of their five round-robin matches to finish as the number one seeded team going into the semis. Defending champions and favourites from Venus Volleyball Club, Kai Wright and Shedeiky Hamilton-Barnes placed second with four wins. Another UWI team, Cherine Richards and Cheryl Daley, was seeded third after winning three of their five matches.

The final semi-final spot was captured by G C Foster’s Khesia Miller-Livingston and Brithney Scott, who won two matches. The pairs of Nicole Larson and Hadijah Spence, and Fiona Binns and Jacqueline Sabal had to settle for fifth and sixth place cash prizes, respectively.

In Saturday’s semi-finals, Thompson and Temple will go up against Miller-Livingston and Scott, while Wright and Hamilton Barnes will do battle against long-time rivals Richards and Daley in the TvJ SN feature women’s match.

In the men’s division, Dellan Brown and Christopher Walters re-established themselves as strong favourites to win this year’s competition when they won all five of their round-robin matches, dropping only two sets.

The defending champions Gatasheu Bonner and Ryck Webb finished the weekend’s round-robin in second place, losing only to Brown and Walters in three sets.

The pairs of Donovan Richards and Kirby Smallhorne, and Oliver Reid and Alex Talgio closed out the top four teams advancing to the semi-finals.

Both teams won two of their five matches and had to be separated by point differential. The pair of Shavoy Irving and Tristan Hitchman, who also had two wins, lost out on a semi-final spot based on set differential. Shavar Bryan and Rojey Hutchinson completed the round robin in sixth place.

Bonner and Webb will go up against Richards and Smallhorne in the first semi-final, while Brown and Walters will take on Reid and Talgio in the TVJ SN feature men’s match.

Saturday’s semi-finals will be followed by the finals on Sunday, when teams will hope to have won the better part of the $200,000 cash prize. Matches on both days will be played at the Fort Clarence Beach Volleyball courts and will commence at 2:00 pm.

The competition is also sponsored by Jamaica Blue Spring Water and Fire Blade Energy Drink.