So here's a difference from women's NCAA season — no rest for the wicked. With beach season gearing up just as men's NCAA season drew to its conclusion, TNS remains hard at work for the next several weeks and months.
Today's something of a light day, though, particularly since I missed half of it. We start off our coverage with the bronze medal final.
Maria Clara/Carolina vs. Meppelink/Van Gestel
Maria Clara started the match in style for the Brazilian sister team, with a service ace. The Dutch team quickly negated it and then some, taking four on their serve before a service error ended the run. Another rough service reception by the Dutch on 4-2 led to a kill for the Brazilians, making it 4-3 at the side change. The next service reception was also a little dodgy, but this time the Dutch managed to stay in their system and get the kill. They cleaned up their reception on the next few serves as the match went sideout after sideout until a block from Carolina tied the match at 7-all. The Dutch team re-established their slender lead at 9-7 after the change, but another nice block from the younger Salgado sister (that's Carolina) kept it from being a 3-point run. We reached the halfway point at 11-10, the Dutch team in the lead and on reception.
The Dutch team seized control after the midpoint timeout, rattling off three quick points, lastly a service ace, to go up 14-10. This prompted the sisters across the net to call time. The timeout worked to 'ice' the server (which I'd think would be pretty comfortable on such a warm day!) as the Brazilians got a service error to side them out. They nearly had a point on serve on the next rally, but were called for a net fault to negate the seeming Dutch hitting error. The fourth side change came at 16-12. Another ace got the Dutch girls to their first 5-point lead of the match, and they made it 6 at 19-13 on a hitting error from Maria Clara. Meppelink and Van Gestel closed the set out at 21-16.
Van Gestel started off set 2 for the Dutch team just like Maria Clara did for the Brazilians in set 1 — with an ace. She backed it up with a second and very nearly a third, the last attempt landing just wide. Then Maria Clara did a little "anything you can do I can do better" with another ace of her own. The Brazil team led 4-3 on service at the first side change. 5-4 was the point of the match and maybe of the whole tournament, as Meppelink had to make not one but two great diving digs, and Van Gestel repaid her efforts with a kill for the sideout. It certainly got the (I have to imagine) mostly dispassionate local fans up and cheering. The set remained sideout after sideout to 7-all after 14 points. The Brazilians took one on serve at 10-all to take the slender lead at the midpoint, with Meppelink just biffing it into the sand as her hit attempt drilled the net.
Carolina started the Brazilian sister act off well in the second half of the set, drilling an ace to make it 12-10. The Dutch brought it back even at 13-all with an amazing display of transition defence. The Salgados looked to (quite rightly) think they had the point won, and when the ball returned to their side they were caught a little off guard and returned a wide hit. It was 14-all at the fourth change. At 15-14, it was the Brazilians' turn to play the transition game like experts, finding the sand with their hit moments later. The Dutch called time down 16-14, but the Brazilians added one more before they could sideout. Carolina scored an emphatic rejection on the rally ending 18-15, and Maria Clara repaid that effort with a service ace. But the Dutch girls closed it back to within 19-18, prompting a Brazilian timeout. Neither team scored on serve again, favouring the Brazilians with a 21-19 second set final.
The third set started with a service point, just as had the first two — but it was an error, rather than an ace. This sent Maria Clara to the service line, and she scored an ace but followed it up with an error. It was four points into the set before there was the first true rally, though it was a basic bump-set-spike kill for the Brazilian side. They led 3-2 on reception at the side change. A block for Carolina on an attempted roll shot by Van Gestel made it 5-2 and the Dutch called time. The Dutch team clawed a point back and trailed 6-4 on reception at side change number two. Maria Clara powered through Meppelink's block to make it a three-point set again at 7-4, and her sister followed it with an ace to make it 8-4. The Brazilians played some solid defence to keep the ball up on the next rally, but Maria Clara's roll shot attempt at the end of the rally gave the point away three different ways — it was outside the antenna, it was a lift, and she touched the net. The first of those was the referee's call, but any would have worked. The Brazil team solidified their lead in the points between the third and fourth side changes, taking a commanding 13-7 advantage. Maria Clara got herself and her sister to bronze medal point with a kill to make it 14-8, and Carolina's block sealed the deal.
It's got to sting a little for this Dutch team — this is the second week in a row they've played on the tournament's final day and walked away without a medal. Maria Clara and Carolina's win makes it a nice week for the Salgado family, after their brother Pedro claimed silver yesterday.
Talita/Taiana vs. Schwaiger/Schwaiger
Neither of these teams made a great deal of noise in Fuzhou a week ago, both losing in round 2 of the knockout phase. It's not something you can really say after only two events, but results so far this season on on the women's side suggest pretty widespread parity, which will make the remainder of the season — and the return of a three-time Olympic champion — all the more intriguing. Certainly, the seedlines of the four semifinalists — 9, 10, 16, and 19 — suggest the talent pool runs pretty deep.
And neither side in this match looked to have the other at the disadvantage early on. The first 14 points were a 7-for-7 split, with neither side leading by more than 2 on the way there. Brazil made it 2 at 9-7 when Doris Schwaiger's hit seemed to just slip off her hand and go straight downward, only just hitting the net at all. The Austrian sisters called time down 11-8, but it didn't ice Taiana, as she aced Doris Schwaiger on the first ball back. Another point for Brazil made it a 6-1 run since the second side change, to go up 13-8 at the halfway timeout.
Service pressure from Doris made it 13-10 and probably should have made it 13-11, as the serve on 13-10 again looked to disrupt the Brazilians, but she got in bad passing position as the ball came back and it landed for a kill. The much taller Stefanie got a couple of relatively rare hitting attempts as the set wore on, but could only split them, getting both a kill and an error. Brazil led 17-11 at the fourth side change and closed out the set 21-13.
Talita and Taiana kept it up to start set 2, leading 5-2 at the side change. They started serving the taller Stefanie (interesting to note though that at 6-foot-even, she was the tallest player in the match — height isn't everything) a fair bit more in this set, and early on she made it look like a good choice with some misplaced cut shots to account for the Brazil team's lead. A service off the hand of Taiana made it 8-4, and it was timeout Austria. It mattered not a whit, as Taiana came up with another ace coming out of the timeout to put the Brazilian side up five. She almost had yet another, but her serve on 9-4 landed about two feet long. The Brazilians led 13-8 on reception at the midway point.
And it was pretty clear we would not need a decider in our second final of the day. Exploiting a pretty pronounced blocking mismatch (Talita against Doris), the Brazil team took four straight on service after the timeout. A fifth in a row came at the end of a long rally where the sisters looked to have their preferred offensive system set, with Doris setting Stefanie, but she hit wide. Talita and Taiana led 18-10 at the fourth side change, and a fifth was not necessary. Brazil reached gold medal point when Doris was whistled for a ball-handling fault. The sisters staved off one set point, but not the next. 21-11 was the final, and a surprising pasting was the result. There was no 'deer in the headlights' factor here, or at least there should not have been. The Schwaigers have two previous FIVB silver medals, so it's not like being here was a jaw-dropping shock. But they didn't play like they'd been here before, that's for sure.
Full day's results
Semifinals
Talita/Taiana (BRA) d. Maria Clara/Carolina (BRA) (21-15, 21-11)
Schwaiger/Schwaiger (AUT) d. Meppelink/Van Gestel (NED) (21-14, 25-23)
Bronze medal final
Maria Clara/Carolina d. Meppelink/Van Gestel (16-21, 21-19, 15-8)
Gold medal final
Talita/Taiana d. Schwaiger/Schwaiger (21-13, 21-11)
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