Olympics Seaside
August 5, 2024
It was going proper. All of it. The Kristen Nuss protection, the Taryn Kloth blocking. The pictures, the swings, the prolonged rallies — all going the right route for the USA of their ninth-place matchup of the Olympic Video games, in opposition to Canada’s Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson. All of it added as much as a 14-9 lead within the first set over the No. 4 seed.
After which Brandie went Brandie.
Occurs regularly. Steadily sufficient that, a 12 months in the past, Wilkerson was voted by her friends as the perfect blocker on this planet by 12 % over the runner-up, Brazil’s Ana Patricia Silva.
Earlier than Monday’s first-round playoff matchup with Nuss and Kloth, Wilkerson hadn’t but discovered her rhythm on the internet. She had simply eight blocks in 4 matches, rating her sixth within the Olympics.
On Monday, she discovered her rhythm.
It was Wilkerson’s blocking that sparked a 6-0 run for the Canadians as they retook the lead within the opening set, 15-14, an edge they wouldn’t relinquish in a 21-19 win. Three of her 5 eventual blocks within the 21-19, 21-18 win would come within the first set.
Her two blocks within the second couldn’t have come at a greater time.
Tied 18-18, Wilkerson smothered a good set to take care of the lead.
One level later, she snuffed one other to provide Canada the one match level it will want.
Who was it that buried the following and ultimate level, too? Brandie Wilkerson, getting her palms on yet one more and ending the victory with a swing after a spectacular cowl from Nuss to maintain the play alive.
Three straight factors for Canada. Three straight factors for Wilkerson.
“Heartbroken. Very disillusioned,” Kloth mentioned. “Excited that I received this chance and I received to play with Kristen and that’s what I’m specializing in. Proper now, it’s onerous to deal with something aside from that (disappointment) however we walked in collectively, and we’re going to stroll again out collectively. I’m taking part in with my finest buddy, touring the world with my finest buddy.
“We do all this collectively (tears)… I’m glad there’s no video.”
Monday offered a pointy change from how these two groups usually play each other. In 4 earlier matchups on the Seaside Professional Tour, Wilkerson had simply eight whole blocks, far beneath her ordinary common per set. On Monday alone, she piled up 5.
And whereas it was Wilkerson who dominated on the internet, one can not ignore the masterful defensive efficiency by Humana-Paredes within the backcourt. Like Wilkerson, Humana-Paredes has been voted by her friends as the perfect on this planet at what she does. The 2019 Defensive Participant of the 12 months performed each bit the half, sitting center, then sitting some extra, ready till the ultimate second to interrupt for both the road or the angle.
Have been they reads? Calls? Each? Who is aware of?
“It’s an exceptional Canadian staff,” Nuss mentioned. “We play them loads they usually positively out-played us at present.”
Such chemistry and belief on protection is a crucial ingredient to the magic that’s the 2024 version of Wilkerson and Humana-Paredes, the ultimate piece of the elite defensive puzzle that coach Marcio Sicoli put in this low season. They have been good in 2023. Glorious, even, winners of three medals and AVP Miami.
Ok to show to Sicoli that he may layer onto the protection, scrapping every thing from 2023 to reinvent a completely new staff in 2024.
“He mentioned ‘We’re throwing out every thing we did final 12 months,’ ” Humana-Paredes mentioned initially of this season. “I really feel like we simply have to have our foundations laid and transfer ahead and he goes ‘Sure, however we’re doing nothing the identical.’
“He instructed us that we’re including these new issues as a result of you may, and since you’ve proven us you may and since now we have the flexibility to. In the event that they didn’t consider we may, they wouldn’t have requested us to, and we mentioned ‘OK, heck yeah, we’re able to degree up.’ We really feel like we’re one of many prime groups on this planet, we’ve received a pair medals, however we really feel like there’s a lot extra room for us. It was intense.”
The rebuild is paying off.
Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson at the moment are into the quarterfinals of the Olympic Video games, the identical spherical the place each completed their Tokyo Olympics — Wilkerson with Heather Bansley, Humana-Paredes with Pavan. They may play Spain’s Daniela Alvarez and Tania Moreno, who upset Katja Stam and Raisa Schoon of the Netherlands earlier on Monday.
“We’re treating each recreation like a event, like a complete new event,” Wilkerson mentioned. “And now we’re on to the following one.”
Tania Moreno, Daniela Alvarez stun Netherlands to advance to quarterfinals
If there’s a single federation that received the day on Monday, it was Spain.
Within the second match of the day, veterans Pablo Herrera and Adrian Gavira, of their tenth mixed Olympic Video games, upset Poland’s Bartosz Losiak and Michal Bryl 23-21, 21-18.
One hour later, Tania Moreno and Daniela Alvarez, Spain’s prime staff who nonetheless have a 12 months of eligibility remaining at TCU, pulled off one other upset, this one over Katja Stam and Raisa Schoon of the Netherlands 18-21, 21-19, 15-13.
The 22-year-old Spaniards are each making their Olympic debut, and to this point have shined in Paris. A pair of sweeps, over France and Germany, in pool play earned them a bout with Stam and Schoon, a staff they hadn’t overwhelmed in 4 tries. Monday was nearly as good a time as any to select up their first win.
Now they may play a staff they haven’t but had the chance to beat in Canada’s Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson. Their quarterfinal would be the ultimate match on August 7.
“That’s going to be a tricky recreation too,” Moreno the FIVB. “Now we simply should reset, get better, put together for the following recreation and put in every thing that now we have. It’s a giant alternative that doesn’t all the time occur, so we’ll simply use it to indicate our greatest recreation and battle for the medals — for our staff and for Spain.”
Monday’s Ladies’s Olympic Seaside Volleyball Outcomes
Tina Graudina, Anastasija Samoilova (Latvia) def. Cinja Tillmann, Svenja Muller (Germany) 21-13, 17-21, 18-16
Daniela Alvarez, Tania Moreno (Spain) def. Katja Stam, Raisa Schoon (Netherlands) 18-21, 21-19, 15-13
Melissa Humana-Paredes, Brandie Wilkerson (Canada) def. Kristen Nuss, Taryn Kloth (USA) 21-19, 21-18
Ana Patricia Silva, Duda Lisboa (Brazil) vs. Miki Ishii, Akiko Hasegawa (Japan)
Tuesday’s Ladies’s Olympic Seaside Volleyball Schedule
All occasions Paris native, which is 6 hours forward of Japanese, 9 hours forward of Pacific:
9 p.m. — Mariafe, Clancy vs. Verge-Depree/Bobner (Switzerland)
10 p.m. — Hughes, Cheng (USA) vs. Huberli, Brunner (Switzerland)