Larissa and Juliana celebrate their third tournament victory of the season in Stare Jablonki, Poland. (credit: FIVB)
I don't have a great deal to say about day four's action, as spotty internet connections kept me from seeing most of the day's play (and this is awfully late coming up anyway). What I saw was pretty engaging, though.
The first semifinal of the day was Larissa and Juliana, the Brazilians, against the German duo of Katrin Holtwick and Ilka Semmler. To my great shock and joy, this match was shot by multiple cameras and actually had a commentator with it, in contrast to the pool play matches and knockout stage through the quarterfinals, which were shot essentially by a surveillance camera. Good enough, but only just. It's so much easier to remember things when everything doesn't look exactly the same.
The match started quite even, with neither side taking a 2-point advantage until it was half over. Larissa impressed with me a completely underhand dink for a kill — that's so hard to do and keep proper control of it. It's why you don't see it very often in beach. But it was a ball-handling error from Juliana on a seemingly simple pass that put the Germans up 13-11. Larissa evened it up at 14 with a soft shot to the backcourt, and the team fought back to a 16-15 advantage by taking one on serve. Juliana stuffed Larissa to go up 18-16, and Germany could only side out one further time to a 21-17 final.
Holtwick and Semmler asserted themselves in set 2. They took a three-point lead early with a let-serve ace from Holtwick, and then another ball-handling error was called on Larissa to bring it to 7-3. The Brazilians closed to 7-6 before the Germans called timeout, and they responded with a big run on Holtwick's serve to pull back out to 10-6. They were later awarded an automatic point when Larissa and Juliana were red-carded for taking too much time on the bench after a timeout. Holtwick followed that up by acing Juliana to give Germany a whopping seven-point lead at 15-8. They got no closer in the set, with the German team putting it away at 21-14, largely through some strength at the net (and some uncharacteristic weakness from Juliana in same).
Brazil retook control in set 3. Amid chants of "Deutsch-land!" from the probably otherwise neutral crowd, Brazil took the earliest advantage at 8-6 with some sterling defense and classic high ball sets. They ran it out to 10-6, on another one of those sneaky underhand dinks, before the Germans could side out. It was sideout after sideout from there, to send Larissa and Juliana to the gold medal final with a 15-10 win.
The match took nearly an hour.
The second semifinal was Evgenia Ukolova and Ekaterina Khomyakova, the Russians, against the veteran/newcomer pairing of Greta Cicolari and Marta Menegatti. The first set was one of those classic beach volleyball sets where a team gradually pulls away through tiny advantages, with Menegatti missing a shot long to put the Russians up 10-7. Not long after that, I lost my connection to the match 🙁 The Russians took this first set 21-16. I wasn't able to watch the second set either, with the Italians narrowly winning 21-19 in what appeared to be the first two-point lead of the set (I was able to follow a ticker). In the third, the Italians were clearly the superior team. The Russians took only one point on serve, with Cicolari and Menegatti advancing to the gold medal final 15-8.
Bronze medal final
That set up Holtwick/Semmler vs. Ukolova/Khomyakova for the bronze medal. I missed out on most of the first set of this match, too, and the Russians won it 25-23 despite three set points for Germany.
I was able to rejoin the broadcast in the second set, with Semmler putting up a stuff block and Holtwick acing the Russians to give Germany a 15-12 lead. They took another on serve to extend it to 17-13, and it looked pretty much over. The Germans had set point on 20-18, but Ukolova and Khomyakova staved off the first point and then did the much harder job of doing likewise on serve to square the set at 20-all. Back and forth it went. Russia had a couple of match points, but Germany took the set with another block and ace at the final score of 26-24.
Holtwick and Semmler took the early lead in set 3 at 3-1, but Ukolova and Khomyakova later rallied to go up 10-8. The Germans fought back to square it at 11. Russian hitting errors gave the Germans the advantage back, and they served for the bronze medal at 14-13. Holtwick made sure the last set would extend no further and put it away.
Gold medal final
The championship final matched up the correct two teams — Juliana/Larissa vs. Cicolari/Menegatti. Aside from the Italians' surprising day-one defeat, these had been the two easily strongest teams all throughout the tourney. Behind Juliana's swings, the Brazilians quickly went up 5-2, and sideout after sideout took it to 12-9. A block from Cicolari finally broke it up at 12-11, and the Italians then squared it at 13. But they never did take the lead. Larissa's fine diving defense and Juliana's equally terrific setting made for some pretty easy points, and an ace past Cicolari put the Brazil duo up 19-16. The Italians called timeout, but it was no use — they didn't score again. 21-16 to Larissa and Juliana in the first.
The Italians led most of the way in set 2, with 15-11 after a Juliana hitting error being their biggest advantage. At this point, so much of the day had passed that part of center court was obscured in shadow, and I have to wonder if it may have played some role (only half the court was thusly effected). A Larissa ace and a hitting error from Menegatti squared the set at 17. The Italians took timeout there, and took the next two points to go up 19-17. After a couple of sideouts, they had set point at 20-18. Larissa staved off the first with a beautiful line kill, and then Cicolari's attempt at a sneaky soft shot went wide, with no touch at the net. Terrific diving defense from Larissa gave her an easy ball to smash home in the backcourt to give Brazil gold medal point at 21-20. They didn't have to wait long to celebrate — a return from the Italian side after Juliana's block attempt went wide, giving the set and the match and the championship to Larissa and Juliana at 22-20.
I took notes on some of the men's second-round knockout matches, but I was unable to see any quarterfinal matches, so it seems sorta pointless to write anything about them. None of the matches I saw were any great shakes, anyway, and there was some bizarre problems with the scoreboard as well, being stuck on the same score for almost an entire set.
One thing I will note is that today's play probably decided the seasonal points championship on the men's side. Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal hold a narrow lead over Alison and Emanuel coming in, and Alison and Emanuel got bounced in the quarters by the Latvians. Yeah, I might have liked to see that match. There is still one more tournament, but particularly if Gibb and Rosenthal win out tomorrow (and they've got the easiest semifinal opponent, no doubt), they should have it locked up.
Full Day Four results:
Women
Semifinals:
#3 Larissa/Juliana (GER) d. #6 Holtwick/Semmler (GER) (21-17, 14-21, 15-10)
#2 Cicolari/Menegatti (ITA) d. #25 Ukolova/Khomyakova (RUS) (16-21, 21-19, 15-9)
Bronze medal final:
Holtwick/Semmler d. Ukolova/Khomyakova (23-25, 26-24, 15-13)
Gold medal final:
Larissa/Juliana d. Cicolari/Menegatti (21-16, 22-20)
Men
Knockout stage round 2:
#1 Alison/Emanuel (BRA) d. #11 Ricardo/Vitor (BRA) (21-14. 21-15)
#12 Pļaviņš/Šmēdiņš (LAT) d. #17 Walkenhorst/Matysik (GER) (21-17, 21-13)
#9 Fijalek/Prudel (POL) d. #22 Semenov/Prokopiev (RUS) (24-22, 21-10)
#4 Rogers/Dalhausser (USA) d. #19 Skarlund/Spinnangr (NOR) (24-22, 16-21, 15-13)
#14 Thiago/Bruno (BRA) d. #13 Sidorenko/Dyachenko (KAZ) (21-16, 21-13) Guess they ran out of gas. A pity, I'd have liked to see these Kazakhs again. There's always next tourney.
#25 Doppler/Horst (AUT) d. #10 Kadziola/Szalankiewicz (POL) (21-17, 21-19) They put this match on center court while the below match was on the outer court, perhaps in the the thinking this was the best chance to give the home fans a win. Sadly, no.
#6 Fuerbringer/Lucena (USA) d. #21 Losiak/Kantor (POL) (21-15, 21-13)
#2 Gibb/Rosenthal (USA) d. #23 Horrem/Eithun (NOR) (21-13, 21-13)
Quarterfinals:
Pļaviņš/Šmēdiņš d. Alison/Emanuel (21-17, 23-21). Damn I wish I could have seen this match.
Rogers/Dalhausser d. Fijalek/Prudel (19-21, 21-19, 15-10)
Doppler/Horst d. Thiago/Bruno (21-16, 21-16) Tournament, meet your Cinderellas.
Gibb/Rosenthal d. Fuerbringer/Lucena (21-12, 21-19)
Semifinal matchups (tomorrow):
Pļaviņš/Šmēdiņš vs. Rogers/Dalhausser. If anything, I have to say the Latvians are the favorites. Rogers and Dalhausser have played a lot of three-set matches in this tournament and have got to be feeling tired.
Doppler/Horst vs. Gibb/Rosenthal. The American duo should win easily…but I'd have said that about a few of Doppler and Horst's opponents, and certainly their last ones.
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