TLAXCALA, MEXICO — When USA teams are introduced at the Tlaxcala Bullring for this week’s World Championships, the song choice for the DJ is an easy one, if not a bit cliché.
“American woman!” crows the forever timeless Lenny Kravitz. “Stay away from me! American woman, mama let me be!”
Cliché it may be, but it’s also sage advice in Mexico.
One week into World Championships, four of the five American women remain, advancing into Thursday’s round of 16, all guaranteed, at the minimum, a top-10 finish. To contrast this from last year, where only two USA teams finished in the top 10 — Sara Hughes and Kelley Kolinske took fifth, Terese Cannon and Sarah Sponcil finished ninth — is a bit staggering. Just when it was easy to think the USA was deep, it grew 100 percent deeper.
Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth continued making relatively quick work of their opponents, sweeping Canada’s Sarah Pavan and Molly McBain (23-21, 21-12) in 37 minutes, continuing a trend of four straight set matches, all in less than 40 minutes.
Betsi Flint, Julia Scoles, defensive machines
Betsi Flint and Julia Scoles have been similarly dominant, though there was a legitimate scare that they’d drop their first set against the Czech Republic’s Barbora Hermannova and Marie-Sara Stochlova. Down 18-20, Scoles and Flint were gifted a missed serve, a gift they took advantage of. A Scoles floater put the Czechs out of system, creating an easy transition on-two kill to knot it at 20 apiece. Another option after a perfect dig from Flint gave the advantage to the USA, and three points later, they’d seal the set, 23-21.
That was the last time it would be close.
Scoles piled up eight blocks, nearly quadrupling her total for the tournament. Flint, owner of arguably the most wicked float serve in the world, notched four aces, upping her tally to 15, second-most in the field, behind only Germany’s Louisa Lippmann (16).
It was, simply put, a defensive masterpiece.
Terese Cannon, Megan Kraft win wild one over Brazil
Masterpiece is not the descriptor most would use when explaining Terese Cannon and Megan Kraft’s topsy-turvy, wild ride of a victory over Brazil’s Andressa Cavalcanti and Vitoria De Souza (22-24, 24-22, 15-12). Cannon and Kraft, down the entirety of the first set, very nearly stole it after trailing 16-19. Then the reverse nearly happened in the second, as the USA led the majority of the way before ceding their lead as well, hanging on to survive just as Brazil did in the first.
The third, of course, was hardly any different, a mercurial, back-and-forth affair won by Cannon and Kraft, who have become one of the more delightful storylines of the week. Kraft is playing full-time defense for the first time in her career. How’s she doing? Oh, just third in the field in digs per match (13.50), while Nuss leads with an absurd 17.75. Cannon and Kraft, playing in just their second tournament as a team, have now won four straight.
A week ago, at the Paris Elite16, after losing three straight pool play matches by the smallest of margins, Cannon couldn’t decide whether to be discouraged or encouraged by the experience. They played well…and were close…but they just couldn’t finish out a match.
That has since changed this week, with three straight wins, including a stunner over China’s Chen Xue and Xinyi Xia to claim the top spot in pool.
Kelly Cheng, Sara Hughes survive close victory
Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes, too, required a little something extra on Wednesday night. After winning pool, they survived a white-knuckler with Austria’s Klinger sisters, Dorina and Ronja (27-25, 19-21, 15-9). It was far from the cleanest match of their partnership, but at this point in the tournament, a win is a win is a win.
Survive and advance.
Miles Evans, Chase Budinger bow out, pocketing house money
The men, for the most part, matched the pace of the women. While Chase Budinger and Miles Evans fell in the morning match to Sweden’s David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig (17-21, 15-21), it was a match they were not expected to win, in a tournament they only snuck into, after breaking pool in a manner that was little shy of a miracle. It was house money they were playing on, and they beat the house, raking in 640 Olympic ranking and entry points and $7,000 in prize money.
All in all, the World Championships were a win for Budinger and Evans, even if their record only reflects two actual wins, over Ukraine and Mexico.
Brunner-Crabb, Benesh-Partain continue piling up wins
For Trevor Crabb and Theo Brunner, and Miles Partain and Andy Benesh, the wins continue piling up. Crabb and Brunner swept Australia’s Chris McHugh and Paul Burnett (21-15, 21-17) while Benesh and Partain swept Poland’s Piotr Kantor and Jakub Zdybek (21-17, 21-16).
“Just happy we didn’t play at nine,” Brunner joked after, referencing their first three matches of the tournament, all of which began at 9 p.m.
Thursday’s round of 16 match will be another 6 p.m. bout for Brunner and Crabb, against another pair of Aussies in Thomas Hodges and Zach Schubert. It will be the first meeting between the two teams, though of course that did not keep Crabb from lobbing his usual friendly shots across the bow on Instagram.
“Mood,” he wrote as the caption to a picture of Crododile Dundee, posing with a Croc.
Thursday’s schedule
Cannon and Kraft will be the first in action, squaring off with the No. 8 seeds, Katja Stam and Raisa Schoon of the Netherlands, at 5 p.m. local. (4 p.m. Pacific). While Crabb and Brunner are meeting the Aussies at 6, Nuss and Kloth will play Brazilians Agatha and Rebecca, who upset Germans Laura Ludwig and Louisa Lippmann (19-21, 22-20, 15-8).
At 7 p.m., Partain and Benesh will play Italians Adrian Carambula and Alex Ranghieri for the third time this season. Partain and Benesh won both previous meetings in straight sets, in Montreal (21-17, 21-18) and Hamburg (21-14, 21-16).
Scoles and Flint, and Cheng and Hughes, will play simultaneously in the 8 p.m. nightcaps, the former against European Champions Nina Brunner and Tanja Huberli of Switzerland, the latter against Latvians Tina Graudina and Anastasija Samoilova, themselves former European Champions.
All Beach Volleyball World Championships matches are streamed live, with replays available, at Volleyball World TV.Use “VOLLEYBALLMAG” for a discount.
