Many issues remained the identical in Atlanta from 2022 to 2023. It was sizzling — “spicy,” within the phrases of Terese Cannon. It rained. Loads. To the purpose that, a yr in the past, a number of matches have been shortened to a single set to twenty-eight. Such was not the case this yr. Mom Nature held off lengthy sufficient that each match went the official distance, and the ultimate, between Miles Partain and Andy Benesh, and Chase Budinger and Miles Evans, went far longer than that. Though the reported time for that last is a brisk 41 minutes, the official working time is someplace within the realm of six hours.
As soon as once more, the mercurial East Coast summer season climate reared its head, although in neither occasion did it appear to influence Partain within the least. Final yr right now, he was a 20-year-old defender whom most everybody acknowledged as an unlimited expertise, although one who may attain his full potential a number of years down the street. When he and Paul Lotman stumped Chaim Schalk and Theo Brunner within the 2022 finals, it was seen as a large upset.
Therein lies the chief distinction between 2022 and 2023: Miles Partain is no person’s underdog. Not anymore. Not with three medals on the Seashore Professional Tour and arguably probably the most improved participant on the planet blocking for him on the internet. Something lower than a victory in Atlanta, even with it that includes the primary fully-loaded subject of the season, would have been seen by many as one thing of a shock.
There can be no shock. Not this yr. Partain and Benesh performed 5 matches in Atlanta, successful 4 of these in sweeps, together with the ultimate, a weird, 21-13, 21-13 pounding over Budinger and Evans that was delayed and delayed and delayed once more. A match that started with a number of thousand in attendance and televised nationally on ESPN2 grew to become an oddly intimate affair, with perhaps a couple of dozen left within the stands, and FaceTime, not ESPN, proving to be the streaming service of alternative in the event you occurred to know somebody remaining.
It’s a disgrace, too, that few will get to see the movie of Partain and Benesh’s last, for it was one in every of their extra sensible performances of the season in a match with that a lot at stake. They hit .590 as a crew, whereas Partain dug 10 balls to Evans’ 4, and Benesh blocked six to Budinger’s three. They served two extra aces, hit 5 much less errors and, all in all, seemed nearly unbeatable, which is strictly what they have been all weekend.
Solely Budinger and Evans got here near fixing the more and more unsolvable puzzle that’s Benesh and Partain. In a quarterfinal match on Saturday, they took the primary set excessive seeds although finally dropped the following two, 21-18, 15-10. Theo Brunner and Trevor Crabb gave it an admirable effort within the semifinals, taking the second set into additional time although they, too, couldn’t maintain it lengthy sufficient to push the match to a few, falling 21-14, 22-20.
Not that Budinger and Evans or Brunner and Crabb or any of Partain and Benesh’s different latest victims ought to really feel too badly about it. Solely three groups up to now two months — Ondrej Perusic and David Schweiner, Anders Mol and Christian Sorum, Nils Ehlers and Clemens Wickler — have been capable of prime Partain and Benesh. These three are medal contenders come Paris 2024.
Atlanta was simply one other cease on the tour de power. Benesh tied with Budinger and Tri Bourne for whole blocks (20) and he and Bourne led in blocks per set (1.8). Behind him, Partain led the sphere in digs per set (5.36). As a crew, they led the sphere in aces (12).
Defensively talking, it doesn’t get extra dominant than that.
However it was, it must be famous, an amazing run to the finals from Budinger and Evans, who lastly exorcised their Taylor Crabb demons within the ninth-place rounds, knocked out Phil Dalhausser, and upset Bourne and Chaim Schalk in an exhausting, gritty semifinal (22-20, 13-21, 23-21) during which they fended off a pair of match factors. Budinger turned in maybe his most interesting event of the yr, ending third in hitting proportion (.604), first in blocks (20), and first in aces (10). The unfold, option-heavy offense they’ve been tinkering with helped ease the workload of Evans, who attacked 165 balls, trailing solely Taylor Crabb’s 167.
Whereas the ultimate is one thing they’ll need to erase, the event actually is just not. Atlanta is greater than double their largest payday of the yr, bringing dwelling $11,000 every, and the 1,222 factors will increase their seeding in Manhattan Seashore and Chicago. Past the tangibles, there’s the intangible of them taking part in their finest volleyball these previous two weeks, in Montreal for an Elite16 and Atlanta, an unlimited constructive heading into crucial stretch of the season.
The undisputed front-runner on the AVP, and the USA, nonetheless, belongs to Partain and Benesh, winners of two straight AVPs — they received the Huntington Seashore Professional Sequence and skipped Hermosa to play in Gstaad — and three consecutive Seashore Professional Tour medals.
“It was positively a problem,” Benesh mentioned of the climate delays, “however Miles is tremendous cool, calm and picked up, and that made it simpler than you’d assume. We’re grateful to everybody that caught round to observe us.”
