Large Sunday for USA in Ostrava Elite16 with silver and bronze medals gained

By Sunday afternoon, Terese Cannon didn’t have a lot left to say. She’s performed lots of volleyball these final two weeks, 14 matches in two tournaments spanning two continents and a nine-hour time zone shift. She’s performed 13 Olympians, recovered from two devastating losses and, as a result of she’s Terese Cannon, has accomplished all of it with an terrible large smile on her face.

“Fairly enjoyable week proper from the beginning,” Cannon mentioned.

Certainly, it may very well be described, with a small pinch of understatement, as fairly enjoyable to win a silver medal at an Elite16, as Cannon and Sarah Sponcil did on Sunday on the Ostrava Elite16.

They adopted up a profitable qualifier sweep on Wednesday by claiming the highest spot in pool on Friday and continued from there, making fast work of Swiss Olympic bronze medalists Anouk Verge-Depre and Joana Mader in Saturday’s quarterfinals (21-16, 21-14). On Sunday morning, they upset Canadian Olympians Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson for the second straight event (19-21, 23-21, 15-13). In so doing, they prolonged a exceptional streak of American success in Elite16s, making it three consecutive occasions by which an American pair contended for gold.

In the long run, that gold would go to Brazilians and world No. 1 Ana Patricia and Duda (21-17, 14-21, 12-15).

However the silver medal itself is just one measurement of success relating to the Olympic race, which can finish a yr from this week, seemingly concluding in Ostrava of 2024. Past that — and the $20,000 Cannon and Sponcil will break up for his or her silver — is the 1,100 factors that got here with the end, that are vital for entry factors shifting ahead within the upcoming Problem in Jurmala, Latvia and an Elite16 in Gstaad, Switzerland.

Cannon and Sponcil gained 340 factors on Olympic leaders Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes, and No. 2 Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth, each of whom completed fifth and break up $8,000 per crew. Cannon and Sponcil at the moment are No. 5 within the Olympic race, behind the aforementioned Individuals, Duda and Ana Patricia, and Australians Mariafe Artacho and Taliqua Clancy, who completed ninth in Ostrava, knocked out by Nuss and Kloth within the first spherical.

“Looks like we’re discovering our stride and to go from the quali to the finals was the cherry on high,” Cannon mentioned.

Within the final two weeks, Cannon and Sponcil are 10-4, with a 3rd in Huntington Seashore and a silver medal in Ostrava. It’s their second medal of the season and first in an Elite16 since a fall occasion in Cape City, South Africa, the place they completed second behind Brazil’s Talita Antunes and Thamela Coradelli.

So sure, one may say — if the individual in query is, say, a modest 27-year-old from upstate New York — that it has been a “fairly enjoyable” week or two for Cannon and Sponcil.

Miles Partain, Andy Benesh win first American Elite16 medal

The success of the American girls on the highest ranges of the Volleyball World Seashore Professional Tour has been well-documented. Three straight Elite16 finals has included an American crew, and a testomony to the depth of expertise within the USA is the truth that every of these finals has featured a distinct pair — -ChenHughes, Nuss-Kloth, Sponcil-Cannon.

Conversely, an Elite16 podium had by no means as soon as had an American male pair standing on it. Till Sunday.

Miles Partain and Andy Benesh continued their scintillating starting to their partnership, sweeping the Czech Republic’s David Schweiner and Ondrej Perusic within the bronze medal match of the Ostrava Elite16 (21-14, 21-17) to say the primary male USA medal on the sport’s highest degree.

The bronze comes on the heels of a win at AVP Huntington Beach, marking their first AVP victory as a crew and second in each of their particular person careers. And, because it goes in an Elite16, it was no straightforward highway to get there, both.

Benesh and Partain, after requiring a small miracle to qualify, barely snuck out of pool, leaning on Germans Nils Ehlers and Clemens Wickler to maintain Chileans Marco Grimalt and Esteban Grimalt winless. The third seed earned, Benesh and Partain then stared down a homicide’s row of a bracket: Poland’s Bartosz Losiak and Michal Bryl within the first spherical, adopted by Sweden’s David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig. A shocking sweep of Poland, who gained a bronze medal within the Uberlandia Elite16 a month in the past, offered the match the world has lengthy anticipated, between the 2 groups trailblazing a jump-setting, artistic type that’s altering the best way the sport is performed.

It was, sadly, a short-lived quarterfinal, as Hellvig’s proper hand, which he broke previous to final yr’s World Championships — opening the door for Tri Bourne and Trevor Crabb to return off the reserve listing and ultimately take ninth — was reinjured after a 21-18 first set win for Benesh and Partain. Sweden was pressured to forfeit, offering the USA a possibility it has had simply twice on the Beach Pro Tour: A semifinal berth in an Elite16 or World Championships.

Benesh and Partain made use of their success, dropping an exhilarating semifinal to Qatar’s Cherif Samba and Ahmed Tijan (21-18, 17-21, 9-15) however gorgeous Schweiner and Perusic, one of many hottest groups on the planet and a pair who had made three straight finals in Ostrava.

The gold medal went to Norway’s Christian Sorum and Anders Mol, who beat the Qataris 21-15, 19-21, 15-12.

The 1,000 factors achieve — and $14,000 in prize cash to separate — places Benesh and Partain No. 18 within the Olympic race, and, technically, third within the USA. They’re now 140 factors behind Trevor Crabb and Theo Brunner and 180 behind Tri Bourne and Chaim Schalk, however their common end (760, the equal of a fifth in an Elite16) is the very best among the many American males. Bourne and Schalk are averaging 492, and Brunner and Crabb 484, each of that are roughly the equal of a 13^th-place end in an Elite16.

With the present trajectory within the first six months of the Olympic race, it’s estimated that a median of 600 factors per occasion would be the minimize line to qualify for the Olympic Video games.