Aust beach volleyball in quarters

A patient Louise Bawden and Taliqua Clancy are through to the last eight of the beach volleyball after overcoming Poland's stubborn defence.

Poland's Kinga Kolosinska and Monika Brzostek took the first set 21-15 after regularly digging out Australia's spike attempts.

Bawden said the pair had to be patient and stick to what they knew would work.

"Even though that wasn't the prettiest game it's actually a really important key to the way we've got to go out and win matches," she told AAP on Sunday.

The Australians won the second set 21-16 before closing out the final set 15-11.

"We knew what we had to do to beat those girls, we just had to stay really patient," Clancy said.

Clancy's powerful serve got better as the game went on and she was able to force the Polish players into some mistakes.

Bawden also got better at reading Poland's defence, which had been extremely successful in confusing the Australians in the first set.

The Australians are set to play their quarter-final at midnight on Monday and Bawden said Poland's stubborn defence had been useful to play against going into the next round.

"Actually having that extra phase and keeping our rhythm and tempo and bringing out the height of our offence and having another go at it, I think that's the way we crack things open," she said.