HERMOSA BEACH, California — For 5 minutes or so, Ben O’Dea and Brad Fuller spoke on the sluggish, agonizing rise of Patrikas Stankevicius and Audrius Knasas.
Lithuania’s prime seaside volleyball crew was clearly gifted, having received Futures occasions in Slovenia, Poland and Hungary. They’d certified for a Problem in Morocco and an Elite16 in Paris. However one thing was nonetheless lacking, a component that put a ceiling on their confidence, which ought to, given their stage of play, be unquestioned.
The Large Win.
“You see that so usually with World Tour groups at that Futures or Problem stage the place you get one good outcome, and abruptly you will have that confidence which you can compete with these guys, after which that turns into your normal,” stated O’Dea, the 32-year-old who, alongside his brother, Sam, has lengthy been the face of the New Zealand program. “So many groups are chasing that one outcome and then you definately get that confidence, you begin coaching with the higher groups within the tournaments, you begin creeping up within the qualifiers, you get a essential draw or two.”
There was a shared look of recognition as the identical thought dawned Fuller and O’Dea: Although they have been talking about Lithuania, who in 2024 is now firmly within the mixture of essential draw Problem stage groups and have landed a number of signature wins, they might have simply as simply been talking about themselves.
Oh.
“I really feel like that’s been us the final couple of tournaments,” Fuller stated, laughing. “We maintain dropping 16-14 to prime 20, prime 30 groups. That’s what we’ve been observing from different groups, we’re on that precipice of a breakthrough.”
It’s an agonizing place to be, that precipice. The medals are shut sufficient to odor, but the outcomes aren’t but there, the podiums remaining elusive. In 4 tournaments this season, they’ve made only one essential draw, with a excessive end of nineteenth on the Saquarema Problem in April. However study the finishes additional, match by match, and what you’ll discover is a crew who could make anybody sweat. They only haven’t put all of it collectively for a full event.
Taking scalps is the phrase O’Dea makes use of when describing large wins. Their first got here in Saquarema, sweeping a robust Estonian crew whose resume boasts a fifth in World Championships and an Elite16 semifinal. However, as Fuller alluded to, they narrowly missed wins over Brazil’s Pedro and Guto, dropping 18-20 within the third set, and Tri Bourne and Chaim Schalk, who edged them 15-12 within the third. A month later, in China, they pushed the Grimalt cousins, Esteban and Marco, to 22-24 within the first set, misplaced the second, and watched as Chile went on to win the gold medal. A month after that? A 21-23 third-set loss to Austria’s Julian Horl and Alex Horst within the remaining spherical of the qualifier. In a month, Horl and Horst will probably be competing within the Olympic Video games.
“I’m getting extra snug,” Fuller stated of these tight matches in opposition to excessive stage groups. “Getting the reps of these matches now. I take pleasure in these matches and I come out of them considering I’m not deflated, I’m uplifted, subsequent time we’re getting that. Spirits are excessive.”
There’s, on this season, just one extra “subsequent time” to flip the slender losses into wins. That comes this weekend in Ningbo Xiangshan, China, on the Asian Volleyball Federation Continental Cup, the place the stakes are a bid to the Olympics. The successful federation goes to Paris. The remainder go residence. Easy and brutal. O’Dea and Fuller will probably be joined by Thomas Reid and Jack McManaway, who’ve made the semifinals in all three Futures they’ve performed this season, successful bronze in Coolangatta, Australia, and gold two weeks later in Tahiti.
With these two pairings, New Zealand has nearly as good a shot as any in current reminiscence to ship a crew to an Olympic Video games for the primary time since 1996.
The truth that they’ve any shot in any respect is a credit score to 1 man: Jason Lochhead.
The Ginja Ninja, as he has affectionately turn out to be recognized in the USA, Lochhead constructed the Vanuatu ladies’s program right into a reputable small energy, helped Ben Saxton and Chaim Schalk to the perfect stretch of their careers by means of the 2016 Rio Olympic Video games after which moved to Tallahassee, Florida, to educate each Florida State and Nick Lucena and Phil Dalhausser heading into the Tokyo Video games. After Tokyo, nevertheless, Lochhead, one among New Zealand’s most adorned — and definitely most well-known — gamers, moved residence.
Excessive Efficiency Sport in New Zealand took notice.
“Jason deciding to come back again to New Zealand was the catalyst for Excessive Efficiency Sport for New Zealand to say ‘Hey let’s discover some cash as a result of we’ve acquired this Olympic coach coming again,’ so he form of began that program himself principally,” O’Dea stated. “It’s night time and day from what it was.”
What was it earlier than, precisely?
“Us taking place to hit just a few balls,” O’Dea stated, laughing. “Since Jason’s been again, it’s a correct program and he’s on a mission proper now and actually needs to push us. It’s an enormous job nevertheless it’s been nice.”
Lochhead’s return supplied the impetus for O’Dea to contemplate rejoining this system on a extra common foundation. It drew Reid again from a current CrossFit kick and lured McManaway, a gifted basketball participant, off the basketball court docket and onto the seaside. It gave Fuller, who labored full-time for the native metropolis council — and nonetheless does — the nudge he wanted to spend extra time on the sand and deal with it much less as a pastime and extra as a reputable vocation.
“I’d settled down earlier than and stated I’ll give this volleyball factor a crack. That was an enormous issue for me: we’ve acquired a coach, acquired some cash, let’s do that full time and see what occurs,” he stated. “Jason’s been superior. It’s an enormous job.”
Certainly it’s. On any given day, Lochhead will prepare the creating pairs, the highest ladies’s duo in Alice Zeimann and Shaunna Polley, often one other session after that — after which the lads. All at his personal home.
He has actually constructed the New Zealand program in his yard.
“And he’s popping out with the identical power,” O’Dea stated. “It’s spectacular.”
Much more spectacular could be if Lochhead and New Zealand have been capable of carry out this weekend in China, to take these scalps they’ve been searching for, to alas declare the end that has been eluding them. Like the lads, Zeimann and Polley have been so-close-you-can-taste-it this season. They’ve a major win on their resume, a 2022 victory over world No. 2 Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss, and important hard-fought losses, too, specifically a number of three-setters in opposition to Italians Valentina Gottardi and Marta Menegatti and the previous Canadian pairing of Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes.
Like the lads, they’ve as wonderful a shot at successful the Continental Cup as any in current reminiscence. Joined by Olivia MacDonald and Danielle Quigley, they might want to fend off robust pairings from China, Japan, and Thailand.
“Pressure is one factor I’ve observed coming into these tournaments,” stated O’Dea, who’s now on his third continental cup. “You recognize it’s a few days you must play nicely for and it’s all the time in your thoughts.”
A few days to get what they’ve been searching for all season: The breakthrough win.
The win that might push them off the precipice and straight into the Olympic Video games.
