To try the ladies’s semifinals of this weekend’s AVP Atlanta Gold Collection is to try, on the floor, what seems to be an entire and complete chalk stroll. All 4 of the highest seeds — Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes, Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth, Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson, Sarah Sponcil and Terese Cannon — have made it by means of to Sunday’s semis.
However the first blush of the bracket is, as many preliminary impressions are, fairly deceptive. Whereas Cheng and Hughes, and Nuss and Kloth, have wasted not a single set in reaching the semifinals with three straight sweeps every, such will not be the case for Sponcil and Cannon.
Oh, no.
There are lengthy roads. After which there’s the highway taken by Sponcil and Cannon.
They have been very almost out of the match on Friday — Friday! Such a consequence has occurred simply as soon as in Sponcil’s AVP profession, in Manhattan Seaside of 2018 with Lauren Fendrick. A primary-round loss to thirteenth-seeded Brook Bauer and Katie Horton (18-21, 14-21) sentenced them to the unenviable grind of the contender’s bracket, within the hottest, most humid match of the 12 months, no much less. To make it to the weekend would require a three-set win over Larissa Maestrini and Lili Maestrini (21-16, 15-21, 15-9).
It simply might have come unraveled from there.
The previous two months has not been the smoothest stretch for Sponcil and Cannon. After a silver medal on the Ostrava Elite16 in early June, that they had received simply two of 9 matches since. In the meantime, they’ve been handed within the Olympic and entry level rankings by Betsi Flint and Julia Scoles. Provided that stretch and the rocky begin to the match, Atlanta very properly might have prolonged the rut.
However then Saturday arrived, and the brand new day introduced a renewed model of Sponcil and Cannon, the one with two Seaside Professional Tour medals and a pair of AVP semifinals this season. Three straight groups bowed out by the hands of Sponcil and Cannon, all by some model of the identical rating: Deahna Kraft and Zana Muno (21-18, 21-15), Megan Kraft and Emily Stockman (21-15, 21-18), and Bauer and Horton (21-15, 21-18). By the tip of Saturday, Cannon was main the match in hitting proportion (.546) and Sponcil was proper behind her at No. 2 (.532).
“You’ll be able to quote me saying Atlanta is scorching,” Cannon stated, laughing.
If anybody ought to know, it’s Sponcil. She’s navigated this actual kind of prolonged ordeal earlier than in Atlanta. In 2021, Sponcil and Kelly Cheng have been upset by rookies Megan Kraft and Savvy Simo, who had come out of the qualifier. That loss preceded 5 consecutive sweeps to deliver them again to the finals towards one other pair of rookies in Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth.
They received’t meet Nuss and Kloth within the finals this time round. They’ll see them at 9:30, japanese, in Sunday morning’s semifinals. The winner will tackle the victor of Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson, and Cheng and Hughes.
“It was a spicy one as we speak,” Cannon stated, “however we’re simply placing one foot in entrance of the opposite and taking it one match at a time, ingesting our weight in Liquid IVs.”
Whereas the highway taken by Cannon and Sponcil is a pleasant storyline, and little question a much-needed morale and momentum enhance, it isn’t precisely really helpful — keep in mind, “Atlanta is scorching.” Or spicy. Toasty. No matter synonym you’d like to make use of, it’s that.
Taylor Crabb and Taylor Sander, after dropping within the second spherical to Chase Budinger and Miles Evans, tried to embark on a equally sweat-soaked run on Saturday. Almost did it, too, sweeping Denver’s Lars and Gage Basey (21-19, 21-15), and Evan Cory and Troy Discipline (21-17, 21-15). That arrange a quarterfinal bout with Trevor Crabb and Theo Brunner, who fell earlier within the day to Tri Bourne and Chaim Schalk within the first battle of the exes on the AVP.
Down 10-13 within the third set, Crabb and Sander tied it at 13-13, even had a match level at 15-14. Alas, it was Trevor Crabb and Brunner who prevailed (21-18, 17-21, 17-15), extending their AVP document to 4-0 towards Crabb and Sander on the 12 months. Their win places them of their third straight AVP semifinal, towards top-seeded Miles Partain and Andy Benesh.
They’d a quick stumble, Partain and Benesh, dropping the primary set to Budinger and Evans. However they’re no strangers to three-setters, and so they’ve turn out to be snug within the remaining units, successful 15 of twenty-two since partnering final fall, together with the 15-10 third-set win over Budinger and Evans.
That put Budinger and Evans in a must-win match towards Phil Dalhausser and Avery Drost, who have been taking part in their third match of the day. Hopefully, they have been following Cannon’s suggestions of ingesting their weight in Liquid IV, as a result of their nightcap match went the total three units, with Budinger and Evans successful (18-21, 21-14, 15-8).
Their win earned them their first matchup towards Bourne and Schalk, at 10:35, japanese.
All matches from AVP Atlanta on Sunday will probably be streamed on ESPN+ or Bally Dwell.
