So I’ve been wanting to make posts like this one all beach-volleyball season, but this has really been my first opportunity. Okay, to be totally honest, I think I slept through one previous chance, but other than that one, my job has been a bit annoying about not letting me have Sundays off. I work at the armpit of dawn, too, so it’s not like I could squeeze it in and then go to work, either.
And I slept a bit too late this morning, too, as I completely missed the men’s bronze final (gratsicles to Avatar and The Greyhound on their second medal together, and Ryan’s second ever, beating Jonathan Erdmann and Kay Matysik) and the first set and change of the women’s bronze final. That proved to be an excellent match, pitting the Czech Republic tandem of Kristyna Kolocova and Marketa Slukova against Brazil’s Juliana Felisberta Da Silva and Maria Antonelli. These teams previously met in the gold final in Berlin two events ago, won by the Czechs in three sets.
To say they were evenly-matched on this day seems a vast understatement. The Czechs’ jump-float serving technique was quite hard for the Brazilians to pass, but the South Americans had the edge in the hitting game (both in terms of finding the floor themselves and digging the classic bump-set-spike hits from the other side). As I joined, Maria and Juliana enjoyed a small lead, but Kolocova and Slukova (apologies for my computer and self not being able to easily reproduce the diacritics their names should have) slowly but surely made up the gap.
The rally at 19-18 was one of the most amazing beach volleyball rallies I have ever seen, lasting well over a minute (just….think about how long that is, when beach volleyball rallies most commonly last about five seconds). Too many superlatives to toss out at once, you’d have to seen it to believe it. Dives, great saves, miraculous volleys back inside the antenna, and at the end fatigue (seemingly) playing a role as what should have smash shots resulted in simple free balls (both teams did this). At the end, the Czechs got the point — and all four players just collapsed to the sand in exhaustion.
That set up match point at 20-18, and the final was 21-19 (the first set final had been 27-25, belying what an intense set that was), and the Czech team won their third medal of the season.
Speaking of medals, that’s really been the story of this FIVB season — a near-total lack of Ordem e progresso on top of the medal table, and a relative lack of seeing that Brazilian flag there at all. They have just a single gold this season, and 9 total medals. They are still one-up on the Americans for most total medals, but are behind the Americans, Germans, Italians, Latvians, and Czechs in golds (tied with Russia). Remember, we’re talking about the entire Brazilian delegation when we say this. To compare, last year Brazil won more gold medals (11) than any other nation won medals of any colour (the United States had 10 total medals, no one else was in double digits). It wasn’t quite as ridonkulous two seasons ago, but again in 2012 Brazil did comfortably lead both in golds and in total medals. And in 2011. 2010 was the heyday of Rogers/Dalhausser, so the US had the most golds that year, but Brazil still had the most total medals (and were a not-too-distant second in golds). Every year from 2004 (the earliest I can easily find records) through 2009, Brazil were by a great margin winners in the total and gold medal counts. So this really is a rather shocking changing of the guard thus far. It’s safe to say the world has caught up with Brazil; with apologies to Ross/Walsh and their three golds so far, there really isn’t any one supremely dominant team on either the men’s or women’s sides causing this drop for Brazil. It’s been from all over the place.
Karla Borger/Britta Büthe (GER) vs Katrin Holtwick/Ilka Semmler (GER)
How they got here: Borger/Buther won Pool H with a two-set win over Brzostek/Kolosinska and three-set wins over Zumkehr/Heidrich and Laboureur/Schumacher (first all-Germany match of the week). Afforded a bye into the second round of the knockout stage, they defeated Goricanec/Hüberli in three sets, Seixas/Agatha in two, and then Kolocova/Slukova in the semis in another three-setter. Holtwick/Semmler on the other hand only narrowly made it out of pool play, defeating Menegatti/Orsi Toth in three sets but losing to Ma/XIA in two and Kolocova/Slukova in three. They defeated the Salgado sisters Carol/Maria Clara in three sets to kick off the knockout stage, Fopma/Pavlik in the next round (also in three), Wang/Yue in two in the quarterfinals, and then Juliana/Maria in a long two-setter in the semis.
And then came the day’s gold finals, which I am pleased as punch to present in full-rundown form. First up was the all-Deutschland women’s final.
It was slightly hard following which team was which, given that the on-screen scoreboard saying simply “GER – GER” didn’t provide for any specifics and that the match was quit even through the first number of points. The team in yellow — world championships silver medallists Borger and Buthe — took the first true lead at 10-8 following a couple of errors on the parts of their compatriots. Holtwick got the point quickly back with a nice service ace to make it 10-all. Borger protested that the ball was out — and in so doing, smoothed out the impression the ball made in the sand. Replays unsurprisingly showed the ball fell in safely. A service error made it 11-10 Borger/Buthe ahead of the technical timeout.
Some more nice serving, from Borger, got her side out to a three-point edge quickly after the technical. Semmler sided out on 13-11 and then drew the scores back level again after an ace and a “pokie” kill, knotting us at 13-all. 14-all was a terrific rally, ending with a kill or Borger as Holtwick stood on in (understandable) disbelief that she had gotten the ball up. The teams went on trading sideouts. The announcer did his usual thing of “cheer when I say the team you’re supporting,” but as it was two teams from the same nation I’m genuinely not sure how he distinguished the two. (Uniform colours, probably, but I couldn’t really hear that clearly — and I don’t speak any German)
A hitting error from Holtwick, on Buthe’s serve, gave the “Double-B” team the opportunity to sideout to first set victory. It went sideout for sideout through to 19-18, when Borger returned the error to knot the scores again. That made it 19-all, and Borger/Buthe called timeout. They got the sideout after the timeout to attain set point at 20-19, but Semmler got the kill to get us to deuce following a rough pass (saved by a fine running set from her partner).
The team in black got their first set point opportunity at 23-22, with Semmler coming up the better of Buthe on a joust at the net. They converted right there, with Borger hitting into the net. Holtwick played a sneaky little shot moments earlier, playing the ball over the net with what looked like it was going to be an overhand set. This shot is generally illegal in beach volleyball, but if it’s done with shoulders totally square to the net (i.e. usually not how it’s done as a true set), it’s legal. Whether technique or gamesmanship (gameswomanship?) it worked, and Holtwick/Semmler went up a set to nil.
The teams again traded sideouts to begin set 2. Holtwick/Semmler went ahead first at 5-3, and then up three at 6-3 following a terrific rally. After Holtwick found the sand in left-back, Borger and Buthe called time. Timeouts are so often the magic medicine, but beyond momentarily getting back to a sideout game, it really wasn’t for the women in yellow. Terrific blocking and defensive positioning, basically taking away the whole court, got Holtwick/Semmler to a four-point lead at 9-5. An ace for Borger peeled a point back at 9-7, but a let-serve ace for Holtwick made it a four-point lead again at 11-7. A beauty of a stuff block for Semmler made it 12-7, and an unforced error from Borger made it 13-7. They managed to sideout ahead of the technical timeout at 13-8.
The lead reached seven for the first time at 16-9, following a hitting error from Buthe, and it was basically all over but the shouting. The closest Borger and Buthe again came was five, a few times. Holtwick/Semmler reached match point at 20-14, and sealed it at 21-16.
Afterwards, out came the cowbells, the traditional trophies awarded at this stop on the FIVB tour. Borger and Buthe quite naturally looked a little unhappy to be standing on the second step of the podium, but it’s still a fine achievement for all three teams.
Phil Dalhausser/Sean Rosenthal (USA) vs Alison Cerutti/Bruno Oscar Schmidt (BRA)
How they got here: The top-seeded Americans are undefeated in Gstaad and hardly even tested, sweeping through pool play with two-set wins over Kovatsch/Kissling, Kadziola/Szalankiewicz, and their compatriots Lucena/Doherty. They dispatched with Huber/Seidl to start off the knockout stage, then made short work of old rivals Ricardo/Álvaro Filho before finally dropping a set in the semis in a return match with Lucena/Doherty, taking a 15-13 third. Bruno/Alison have been almost as good, with pool play wins over Gibb/Patterson and Sidorenko/Dyachenko. Their pool play loss to Mexico’s Ontiveros/Virgen (which sounds shocking considering they carried the #29 seed, but they are medallists this season) didn’t hurt them, as they too got a bye in the knockout stage. They defeated Kadziola/Szalankiewicz, Doppler/Horst, and Erdmann/Matysik to reach the final, all in two straight sets.
The stream for this match didn’t come on until the first set was nearly over, as the Americans took a 20-15 lead on (per the commentator’s post-set comments) their usual strengths — Dalhausser’s superlative serving and blocking, and Rosenthal dirtying himself on defence. They finished off the first set at 21-17, missing one sideout opportunity on an overpass but safely winning the first frame.
The Americans got on the board first in set two despite serving first when Bruno, trying to angle around the hulking Dalhausser at the net, put too much on it and had it land wide. Bruno made a couple of terrific digs on the 1-1 rally, but then shanked his terminating hit into the net. A kill on 2 for Dalhausser — with his left hand — extended them to the first two-point lead of the set. His service run continued with a massive block, before Bruno sided out at 4-2. Rosenthal’s kill to go up 7-3 was an absolutely picture-perfect shot, landing in the left-back corner. You couldn’t have thrown it from two feet away and hit the very corner of the tape more perfectly. (Well, maybe ‘Superman Sean’ could….) Another ace from the big man made it 8-3 USA. Bruno took one back on the rally ending 8-5, leaving both Dalhausser and Rosenthal to eat sand on a terrific cut shot. But the Americans sided out at the side change, still leading relatively comfortably at 9-5.
Alison got into the action on the first rally after the change, deftly taking away Rosenthal’s angle shot for the block. Rosenthal got back on the horse for the next kill, and another beauty of a service ace from Dalhausser again made it a five-point set at 11-6. Point-for-point it went to the technical timeout at 13-8. Alison and Bruno weren’t playing poorly by any stretch of the imagination, but they weren’t really in this match either.
Alison came up with another nice block shortly after the technical timeout, to get his team back to within three at 13-10. The Americans kept their cool (which they at times haven’t in the past) and just kept siding out. A rare double contact call against Dalhausser (and an even rarer fairly blatant double contact) made it 15-12, and the big man then sided out on 2 for a 16-12 score at the next side change. They went back up five after a fine energetic point from Rosenthal, diving for the dig and smashing the ball home a couple of second later. The Brazilians called time down 17-12.
A hitting error from Bruno made it 18-12 after the timeout. He effectively got the point back on the 18-13 rally with a great dig that went right to Alison’s shoulder. The big man didn’t waste the opportunity, and was visibly excited after the ball fell. After another point for Brazil, the Americans took their timeout.
A stuff block for Alison against Rosenthal made it interesting at 18-16, but Bruno missed his next serve into the net. Rosenthal then gave the point back with a service error, but then a miscue from Alison — he was much too late getting to the net to respond to Dalhausser’s smash on 1 after the short serve from Bruno — made it match point at 20-17. Dalhausser wasn’t about to let that rally have any suspense; it ended emphatically with a huge stuff block to give the Americans their second gold of the season.
Final day scores
Lucena/Doherty (USA) d. Erdmann/Matysik (GER) (21-19, 21-16) for bronze
Kolocova/Slukova (CZE) d. Juliana/Maria (BRA) (27-25, 21-19) for bronze
Holtwick/Semmler (GER) d. Borger/Buthe (GER) (24-22, 21-16) for gold
Dalhausser/Rosenthal (USA) d. Alison/Bruno (BRA) (21-17, 21-17) for gold
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