’round the world

Well…not really. This is just a little update post.

I've gone a bit dark the last week and change as a result of moving. Well, I am now situated at my new digs! Hooray!! That means I should be back to posting daily (provided I have something to post about…and don't worry, evanescent reader, I'm not even close to out of ideas). Things were…a little insane the last few days. I've still got lots of unpacking to do (for one thing, I really need to find my leg razor….trust me), but on the whole, I'm here and ready to go!

So updates on a few things…well, first would be the FIVB World Tour stop in Finland. I felt bad about not seeing a single point of this tournament, until I read up a little more and found out that because it lacks 'Grand Slam' designation, it's a much simpler event. It's basically just a double-elimination tournament. The German duo of Katrin Holtwick and Ilka Semmler took home the championship with a Spain's Liliana Fernández (known as Liliana) and Elsa Baquerizo, despite the fact that the Spanish team entered the final undefeated and the Germans carried a loss to eventual third-place finishers Evgenia Ukolova and Ekaterina Khomyakova (a team on the rise, no question) in the third round. Another team on the rise, the Dutch girls Michelle Stiekema and Rimke Braakman, pulled out two wins in the tournament, to finish ranked 13th to contrast their #27 seed entering play. They're just 22 and 21, respectively, and I see very good things for this team in the future. The top seeds Larissa and Juliana weren't terribly impressive, bowing out ranked fifth with losses to Liliana/Baquerizo and Ukolova/Khomyakova.

Contrary to prior indication, the team of Nicole Branagh and Kerri Walsh Jennings were not in action. And Walsh Jennings wasn't there with another partner, either — there were no American teams in the tournament at all. They were all in Cincinnati for an AVP event. I give this a hearty le shrug as I never even heard about this event ahead of time. But the major men's teams were there too, though much like Poland both Dalhausser/Rogers and Gibb/Rosenthal fell short of the final match. Gotta wonder if Gibb is still feeling the effects of the injury he suffered in the semis in Poland — dude should hang it up for the year. They're already FIVB World Tour men's points champions for the year. As for the women, Kessy/Ross defeated Walsh Jennings/Branagh in the final (21-18, 21-11). Team-building for Kerri to be sure, but I have to wonder how much longer that phase will linger.

And in World League qualification, the Netherlands team made good on the compliments the Dominican coach had for them, winning two very competitive matches with Portugal, each 3-2. The most 'lopsided' set in either match was a 25-17 win for Portugal in the third set on night 2. The Dutch team rallied back from down 2-1 to win the second night, after Portugal rallied from down 2-0 on night 1 and only a crazy 20-18 fifth set kept them from completing the comeback. This means the Netherlands takes Portugal's spot in next year's World League.

The other qualifier was Egypt against Iran, to face Japan for a spot in the World League. This one was not nearly as competitive, with Iran dropping only one set in two days to advance. The qualifier series with Japan has not yet been scheduled.