HELSINGBORG, SWEDEN — Both American women’s doubles teams were ousted in the match play round of the IBF U21 World Games on Sunday.
The USA tandem of Victoria Varano, an incoming Vanderbilt freshman, and Jillian Martin won four of their seven group matches, good enough to put them into a three-way playoff for the second ticket into the finals, but a costly split-open in the ninth frame by Varano gave Sweden the edge it needed to prevail 218-209 with Finland checking in at 200. France also advanced from this group.
Varano, who will enroll at Vanderbilt in August, had prevailed in a singles playoff earlier in the week that will result in a medal when the singles finals are conducted Wednesday.
The USA team of Vanderbilt’s Mabel Cummins and Paige Peters saw a continuation of their tournament near-misses as they won three of the seven Baker-style matches and came in fifth in their grouping. Two Singapore teams advanced to the medal round.
The Cummins-Peters team had its moments, winning its first match 233-169 over Columbia and giving a Singapore team a mighty tussle before losing, 226-224.
The tournament continues through this week.
