If you listened closely enough, even across Europe and the Atlantic Ocean and the entire continental United States, you could hear the maybe awful or, depending on your view of the matter, maybe relieving sounds of squeaking. It wasn’t the squeaking of the retired steel mill under which the Ostrava Elite16 is played, but the slimmest of margins by which Julia Scoles and Betsi Flint, and Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss broke pool.
Coming into Friday’s final round of pool play in the Volleyball World tournament in the Czech Republic, both teams required two things: A win — at least one, in the case of Flint and Scoles — and a little bit of help. Both teams got their wish.
Flint and Scoles, after dropping their opening match to Australia’s Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho, won their morning match over Brazil’s Barbara and Carol (21-13, 21-19). It made the afternoon a relatively simple equation: Beat Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes and make the playoffs … or lose and hope that Australia would beat Brazil … or, in the most complicated scenario, lose and hope that Brazil, should they beat Australia, would beat them by a slim enough margin that Flint and Scoles would advance to the playoffs on points.
Because this is an Elite16, where nothing comes easy, it proved to be the final option. Flint and Scoles were thumped by Cheng and Hughes (21-13, 21-11), but Barbara and Carol only beat Australia by a total of four points. That would prove to be the difference, as Flint and Scoles moved on from pool play for the first time in an Elite16 this season, and will meet top-seeded Duda and Ana Patricia in the first round of the playoffs.
Think that was close? Try Nuss’ and Kloth’s white-knuckler of a day. They dropped both of their matches on Thursday, to Brazil’s Duda and Ana Patricia and Americans Sarah Sponcil and Terese Cannon. It put them in a win-and-maybe in scenario in their mid-morning match with Latvia’s Tina Graudina and Anastasija Samoilova, who went 1-1 on the first day. A win would, again, come down to points. And win they would, 23-21, 21-9, creating a margin wide enough to push Latvia out of the tournament and Nuss and Kloth into the playoffs.
“Crazy,” Nuss said.
Indeed, point differential breakdown was favorable for the American women. It was not so with the men. Trevor Crabb and Theo Brunner finished 1-2 in pool, with losses to France’s Youssef Krou and Arnaud Gauthier, and Norway’s Anders Mol and Christian Sorum, and a win over Brazil’s Pedro and Guto. But France was upset by Pedro and Guto on Friday afternoon, and the differential fell in favor of the Brazilians.
Crabb knew, too, that simply qualifying wouldn’t be enough. That it was, in his words, “useless” to simply qualify and not break pool. Ostrava now marks the second time this season he and Brunner have qualified for an Elite16 and failed to break pool, the first coming in Tepic, Mexico, in March. They’ll leave the Czech Republic with a 13th, 460 points, and $5,000 in prize money, gaining a bit of ground on Tri Bourne and Chaim Schalk but ceding ground to Miles Partain and Andy Benesh, who broke pool on Friday.
While the fortune of Benesh and Partain was not decided on points, it was helped, in a big way, by Germans Nils Ehlers and Clemens Wickler. On Thursday, Benesh and Partain split their matches, sweeping Chile’s Marco Grimalt and Esteban Grimalt but falling to Germany. A win on Friday over the Czech Republic’s David Schweiner and Ondrej Perusic would have guaranteed a playoff berth, as would a German win over Chile. Schweiner and Perusic, who have made three straight finals in Ostrava, made quick work of Benesh and Partain (21-16, 21-13), leaving their fate in the hands of Germany vs. Chile. Ehlers and Wickler prevailed, sweeping the Grimalts, which gave Benesh and Partain the third position in pool, enough to move into the weekend’s playoffs.
Benesh and Partain will play Poland’s Bartosz Losiak and Michal Bryl on Saturday.
Cheng and Hughes, per usual, needed no help from other countries, nor did they have any use for calculators on Friday. They didn’t drop a set in pool play, sweeping Clancy and Artacho, Barbara and Carol, and Flint and Scoles to earn a bye straight into the quarterfinals.
Cannon and Sponcil required no help, though once more, the point differential had a distinctly American tilt. Their two wins on Thursday assured them a spot in the weekend’s playoffs, and even with a loss to Duda and Ana Patricia, they still held the point edge over the Brazilians. Like Cheng and Hughes, they will begin playoffs in the quarterfinals, awaiting the winner of Switzerland’s Anouk Verge-Depre and Joana Mader and the Czech Republic’s Barbora Hermannova and Marie-Sara Stochlova.
Saturday’s schedule
Men
First round
Vitor Felipe/Renato Lima Brazil (14, Q8) vs. Nils Ehlers/Clemens Wickler Germany (5)
Evandro Goncalves/Arthur Mariano Brazil (15, Q10) vs. Youssef Krou/Arnaud Gauthier-Rat France (8)
Cherif Samba/Ahmed Tijan Qatar (7) vs. Pedro Solberg/Guto Carvalhaes Brazil (9)
Bartosz Losiak/Michal Bryl Poland (6) vs. Miles Partain/Andy Benesh United States (13, Q3)
Into Round 2
Anders Mol/Christian Sorum Norway (1)
Ondrej Perusic/David Schweiner Czech Republic (4)
Alex Ranghieri/Adrian Carambula Italy (3)
David Ahman/Jonatan Hellvig Sweden (2)
Women
First round
Barbora Hermannova/Marie-Sara Stochlova Czech Republic (12) vs. Anouk Verge-Depre/Joana Mader Switzerland (7)
Kristen Nuss/Taryn Kloth United States (8) vs. Mariafe Artacho/Taliqua Clancy Australia (3)
Nina Brunner/Tanja Huberli Switzerland (5) vs. Katja Stam/Raisa Schoon Netherlands (2)
Ana Patricia Silva/Duda Lisboa Brazil (1) vs. Julia Scoles/Betsi Flint United States (11)
Into Round 2
Terese Cannon/Sarah Sponcil United States (16, Q6)
Melissa Humana-Paredes/Brandie Wilkerson Canada (13, Q1)
Sara Hughes/Kelly Cheng United States (6)
Svenja Muller/Cinja Tillmann Germany (10)
Five USA teams — four women’s — get through Ostrava Elite16 pool play Volleyballmag.com.
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