Apparently Kerri Walsh and April Ross will be partnering this year after all.
This has been 'worst kept secret' territory for months (to the point where it's kinda starting to annoy me — so you can imagine how it must feel to the principals). With Jen Kessy nursing hip and Achilles injuries, we already knew she'd be out of action for the world championship next week.
It's no great shock that she'd also be out for the Gstaad Grand Slam the week after. But the news today is that April Ross will play that tournament alongside none other than the erstwhile 3-time Olympic champion.
This is the first time the FIVB have said anything about this partnership.
Jen says she'll be back later in the season, and I believe her. I don't feel this to be the fruition of what was so widely reported two or three days ago (not least because Jen was still on the Gstaad starting list at that time). This is not the changing of the guard. This is a fill-in for a single tournament. It just happens one hell of a fill-in.
But, at this rate, would anyone be shocked for there to be another fork in this road?
I epxected trumpets and fanfare would metaphorically accompany the announcement of the first Walsh Jennings/Ross partnership, not the afterthought of a mention it's given in the linked release (which is more about Jen's injuries than it is about Kerri or April). And again, I don't consider articles like this one or this one to be that fanfare. Those are examples of irresponsible journalism, because this development was not yet announced when those articles were written and published. I still excoriate their authors and publishers in the strongest possible terms for running them.
I look forward to cheering on Jen Kessy later in the 2013 season and, in all likelihood, to following Kerri Walsh Jennings and April Ross as a regular partnership next season (I have the utmost respect for Walsh Jennings, but I can't say I'm a fan). Gstaad will prove an interesting sneak preview. It makes one wonder why Walsh Jennings didn't step in for Kessy for worlds. I figured at first the Long Beach debut (which will no longer be her debut, Gstaad is first) was as much about getting every day possible to regain form and fitness as it was debuting at home. Evidently not. Frankly, though, I think I'm just about finished writing about her until she does debut.
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