I had the schedule wrong. Yesterday was country quota play (which was all of 3 matches), it's today that's qualification play. Play involving teams any of us have actually heard of begins tomorrow.
The morning in Bangsaen was rainy. I've often wondered what the tipping point is for rainy days in beach volleyball. Because the camera was pretty soaking wet (a disembodied hand came in to wipe it off rather frequently) and the sand looked damp, but they never stopped play. Of course it wasn't as rainy as it was during the London Olympics or, as it happened, the spectacularly rainy first few matches in Beijing four years ago, but it was on my mind as I watched. What, if anything, would incur a rain delay in beach volleyball? These gals are much harder than baseball players 😛
The first match of the day was between a German team you've never heard of and a Colombian team you've never heard of. The Colombian team, sisters Andrea and Claudia Galindo, apparently were "South American champions" at one time, a title which has Brazil saying "LOL sure." The Germans, Anika Krebs and Chantal Laboureur (yeah, that's a German name…) were pretty clearly the better team. They won the first set by a comfortable 21-14 margin. The Colombians jumped out to a 4-1 advantage in the second, but it withered away, with some outstanding defense on the German side of the net. The score was first tied 11-11, but after a couple of pretty lengthy runs on serve the Germans were serving for the match at 20-13. The Colombians closed to 20-17, but their run ended there, with 21-17 the final in the second set.
The weather cleared up a little as the day's action went on. The camera shooting the court I was watching also caught a nifty looking tall building in the background, but it's not tall enough for Wikipedia to care what it is, so I really don't know what it was. The camera I was tuned into also highlighted a bit of a shortcoming of the court setup in Bangsaen — whistles for the next court over were fully audible. I suppose part of the reason for that is all of nobody was there watching, but I just hope the players weren't put off by it at all. That would be unfortunate.
Aw, bummer…I just noticed that Larissa and Juliana pulled out. I guess they were only on the starting list in the first place in case Chen and Xi played. I understand that they'd pull out with nothing really to gain (having already clinched the season points title), but I'm bummed that I won't get to see them one final time 🙁 That's gotta make Kessy/Ross the prohibitive favorites. Holtwick/Semmler look good for a medal, same for the (shockingly) lone Brazilian tandem present, Agatha/Seixas. Nicole Branagh is also here, obviously sans preggers Kerri. Her partner this week is Lauren Fendrick, and sure, I guess they could do something. Chances are someone comes from "out of nowhere" to make a run at a medal.
A Czech team beat a (obviously unqualified) local Thai team in qualification (21-1, 21-11). That is not a typo. 21 to freaking 1. How…does that…even happen? You put me and some other blogger out there against Larissa and Juliana, I bet we score at least 2 or 3. But then how'd they get 11 in the second set? 21-11 is still all kinds of ugly, but it's at least a score that sometimes happens in professional beach volleyball. This 19-minute whirlwind sure would have been an interesting match to see.
The scene then shifted over to centre court. The Americans Summer Ross (who has had an interesting career path thus far) and Heather Hughes, winners of country quota play yesterday (7 different American teams showed up for the tournament, which is 3 too many) were at it again. They played against another Thai team, who, thankfully for whatever home crowd was present, were a tad more competitive than 21-1. But they still lost in two fairly quick sets (21-17, 21-10), with the defense and serving (all individual facets of the game, really, but those two in particular) from the Americans just too much for the Thai duo of Supattra Juajan and Prateep Kambut.
And, just like that, qualification play ended for the day, with 8 teams I doubt will win a match in the main draw (it's a straight up double-elimination tournament, no pool play involved) advancing on. The Americans did look strong, but c'mon, it was against Thailand. Not exactly a beach volleyball powerhouse. Sorry to any Thai readers 😛 It would be something if they made a run.
Now I'm quite sure the next step is the main draw, and I'll try to write a little more coherently about that.
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