On Saturday night, after a pair of semifinal demolitions on the Paris Elite16 kudos of Ana Patricia Silva and Duda Lisboa (21-16, 21-12 over the Netherlands), and Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth (21-13, 21-17 over Italy), Wealthy Lambourne questioned aloud on Volleyball World TV what it’d appear like if each groups have been to ship equally robust performances towards each other in Sunday’s finals.
For quarter-hour Sunday, it appeared viewers wouldn’t be handled to such a ultimate.
Brazil whacked the USA, 21-10, within the opening set of the gold-medal match. Such a rating shouldn’t be uncommon for Ana Patricia and Duda. They entered the match having gained 26 of their earlier 27, and of their 5 matches earlier than the ultimate in Paris, they’d gained units by scores of 21-14, 21-13 (twice), 21-12 (additionally twice), and 21-10 over among the best groups on this planet in Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson.
They have been the very best group on this planet enjoying very very similar to the very best group on this planet.
Earlier than that opening set, nevertheless, Nuss and Kloth, the third-ranked group on this planet, had performed very very similar to the No. 2-ranked group on this planet. Like Ana Patricia and Duda, they hadn’t dropped a match in Paris. Like Ana Patricia and Duda, just one group had managed to assert a set off of them coming into the ultimate. Like Ana Patricia and Duda, their semifinal win was as easy and simple as a Sunday stroll.
The ultimate was the No. 1 seed vs. the two, and, in Paris at the least, there was a major hole between them and each different group within the discipline.
However a 17-6 run by Brazil to shut the primary set made a convincing case that they have been the 1 seed — and held a major hole between each different group within the discipline. Brazil piled up almost as many aces (8) within the first set because the USA did factors.
If there’s an Achilles Heel to Duda and Ana Patricia, it’s of the first-world selection. Huge leads sometimes precede lackadaisical play. Within the Tepic Elite16, they beat fellow Brazilians Barbara and Carol, 21-13, and wound up shedding the following set and the match. Later, within the gold-medal match, a 21-15 second-set win over Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes was adopted by a 10-15 snoozer within the third. A 21-13 opening-set win in Gstaad towards Betsi Flint and Julia Scoles wasn’t sustained, and so they went three, simply as they did in Montreal after successful the primary, 21-14, although they wound up shedding in Montreal, giving up a 14-9 lead within the third set.
It’s selecting at nits. If constructing large leads and generally shedding focus within the aftermath is arguably the most important flaw in Ana Patricia and Duda’s sport, it’s an enviable downside to have. And it wasn’t as in the event that they performed poorly within the second set in Paris, extra a regression to the imply for each groups; eight aces, is, in spite of everything, a staggering quantity in a single match, a lot much less a single set.
Nuss and Kloth turned the tide, delivering on what Lambourne had requested to see:
Each groups enjoying their explicit world-class manufacturers of seaside volleyball.
The place Ana Patricia and Duda win on predominantly side-out and energy, Nuss and Kloth lean on protection and craft. The second set was a wonderful bout that led to a 21-18 win for the USA. As 4 of the earlier seven matches had gone between the 2, Brazil and the USA have been going three.
The start of the third set was proof sufficient that when Brazil is at its finest, there isn’t any doubting who’s the very best group on this planet. A 3-0 lead stretched to 5-1 with ace No. 11. A mix of sharp angle swings and a wide range of excessive traces from Ana Patricia annoyed the group that’s arguably the very best defensive duo on the planet.
However Nuss and Kloth do have maybe the strongest argument as the very best defensive duo on the planet, and massive leads are, humorous as it might sound, no protected house for Brazil. A 5-1 run from the USA tied the rating at 9 apiece, delivering every thing Lambourne may have wished after which some.
“Nuss wanting massively dialed in,” Simon Golding mentioned on Volleyball TV. “Getting some touches, one thing she didn’t a lot get within the first set however now it’s a USA scoring machine.”
Brazil simply has a behavior of shutting down the machine. Nuss and Kloth have by no means crushed Ana Patricia and Duda.
Sunday wouldn’t be the day.
A side-out preceded an amazing dig and putaway from Ana Patricia, which led to a different dig and transition from Duda, all of which was adopted up, devastatingly, with an error from Nuss. A ten-10 tie slipped right into a 10-14 deficit for Nuss and Kloth.
“Brazil has woken up in set three when it actually mattered,” Golding mentioned.
“It comes on so quick in seaside volleyball,” retired German participant Chantal Labourer added.
Certainly — and it could possibly flip equally as quick, particularly when these are the 2 groups on the court docket.
Nuss and Kloth did their damndest, scoring three in a row to place the stress again on. Twice, Nuss dug Ana Patricia on what would show to be the ultimate rally. A near-perfect excessive line was saved by a diving Duda, whose dig shot into the left hand of Ana Patricia. All of the Brazilian blocker may do was take a windmill swing, reverse handed, which was, surprisingly but completely, given the staggering athleticism of this group, how the match ended: An excellent run snuffed one level shy, a 15-13 gold medal victory, the match that the Parisian followers deserved.
“It’s at all times laborious to play towards that group,” Ana Patricia mentioned. “It’s at all times a battle.”
Paris marks the fourth gold medal of the yr for Brazil, who stay the one group on this planet to win a number of Elite16 occasions. Nuss and Kloth’s silver medal solidifies their standing because the second-most embellished group on this planet, with 5 medals in 9 occasions.
For his or her efforts, the Brazilians took dwelling $30,000, whereas TKN earned $20,000.
Bronze was gained by the Netherlands’ Katja Stam and Raisa Schoon, who swept Italians Marta Menegatti and Valentina Gottardi (21-17, 22-20) to assert their second medal of the yr and first since a gold on the season-opening Doha Elite16 in February.
Perusic-Schweiner win second gold of 2023
The lads’s ultimate, too, was a battle. Germans Clemens Wickler and Nils Ehlers, looking for the primary gold medals of their careers, gave themselves a correct shot at one, claiming the primary set over the Czech Republic’s Ondrej Perusic and David Schweiner, 21-16. It was solely the second set that Schwiner and Perusic had misplaced within the event, the opposite coming within the opening spherical of pool to — guess who? — Ehlers and Wickler.
Simply as they did in pool play, Perusic and Schweiner rebounded from an opening-set loss to win the next two, 21-19, 15-11, sealing up their second gold medal of the season.
The win vaults the Czechs from No. 29 to No. 19 within the Olympic rankings regardless of having simply 5 finishes to their title, resulting from an damage to Perusic earlier within the yr.
Bronze was gained by Robert Meeuwsen and Alex Brouwer of the Netherlands, their first medal of the season and first since a silver medal in Paris a yr in the past. It’s a vital outcomes for his or her entry factors, selecting them up out of qualifiers, the place they started this event, for the foreseeable future. The factors earned by Julian Horl and Alex Horst, who fell to the Netherlands for bronze, are vital as nicely, as they’ll now be nearer to the golden place of straight into the Elite16 predominant attracts.
