It was going proper. All of it. The Kristen Nuss protection, the Taryn Kloth blocking. The pictures, the swings, the prolonged rallies — all going the correct course for the USA of their ninth-place matchup of the Olympic Video games, in opposition to Canada’s Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson. All of it added as much as a 14-9 lead within the first set over the No. 4 seed.
After which Brandie went Brandie.
Occurs regularly. Ceaselessly sufficient that, a yr in the past, Wilkerson was voted by her friends as the very best blocker on this planet by 12 p.c over the runner-up, Brazil’s Ana Patricia Silva.
Earlier than Monday’s first-round playoff matchup with Nuss and Kloth, Wilkerson hadn’t but discovered her rhythm on the internet. She had simply eight blocks in 4 matches, rating her sixth within the Olympics.
On Monday, she discovered her rhythm.
It was Wilkerson’s blocking that sparked a 6-0 run for the Canadians as they retook the lead within the opening set, 15-14, an edge they wouldn’t relinquish in a 21-19 win. Three of her 5 eventual blocks within the 21-19, 21-18 win would come within the first set.
Her two blocks within the second couldn’t have come at a greater time.
Tied 18-18, Wilkerson smothered a good set to keep up the lead.
One level later, she snuffed one other to present Canada the one match level it could want.
Who was it that buried the following and ultimate level, too? Brandie Wilkerson, getting her palms on one more and ending the victory with a swing after a spectacular cowl from Nuss to maintain the play alive.
Three straight factors for Canada. Three straight factors for Wilkerson.
It’s a pointy change from how these two groups sometimes play each other. In 4 earlier matchups on the Seashore Professional Tour, Wilkerson had simply eight whole blocks, far beneath her common common per set. On Monday alone, she piled up 5.
And whereas it was Wilkerson who dominated on the internet, one can’t ignore the masterful defensive efficiency by Humana-Paredes within the backcourt. Like Wilkerson, Humana-Paredes has been voted by her friends as the very best on this planet at what she does. The 2019 Defensive Participant of the 12 months performed each bit the half, sitting center, then sitting some extra, ready till the ultimate second to interrupt for both the road or the angle.
Have been they reads? Calls? Each? Who is aware of?
Such chemistry and belief on protection is a essential ingredient to the magic that’s the 2024 version of Wilkerson and Humana-Paredes, the ultimate piece of the elite defensive puzzle that coach Marcio Sicoli put in this low season. They have been good in 2023. Glorious, even, winners of three medals and AVP Miami.
Adequate to show to Sicoli that he might layer onto the protection, scrapping all the things from 2023 to reinvent a wholly new staff in 2024.
“He mentioned ‘We’re throwing out all the things we did final yr,’ ” Humana-Paredes mentioned originally of this season. “I really feel like we simply have to have our foundations laid and transfer ahead and he goes ‘Sure, however we’re doing nothing the identical.’
“He advised us that we’re including these new issues as a result of you may, and since you’ve proven us you may and since we’ve got the power to. In the event that they didn’t imagine we might, they wouldn’t have requested us to, and we mentioned ‘OK, heck yeah, we’re able to stage up.’ We really feel like we’re one of many prime groups on this planet, we’ve bought a pair medals, however we really feel like there’s a lot extra room for us. It was intense.”
The rebuild is paying off.
Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson are actually into the quarterfinals of the Olympic Video games, the identical spherical the place each completed their Tokyo Olympics — Wilkerson with Heather Bansley, Humana-Paredes with Pavan. They’ll play Spain’s Daniela Alvarez and Tania Moreno, who upset Katja Stam and Raisa Schoon of the Netherlands earlier on Monday.
Tania Moreno, Daniela Alvarez stun Netherlands to advance to quarterfinals
If there’s a single federation that received the day on Monday, it was Spain.
Within the second match of the day, veterans Pablo Herrera and Adrian Gavira, of their tenth mixed Olympic Video games, upset Poland’s Bartosz Losiak and Michal Bryl 23-21, 21-18.
One hour later, Tania Moreno and Daniela Alvarez, Spain’s prime staff who nonetheless have a yr of eligibility remaining at TCU, pulled off one other upset, this one over Katja Stam and Raisa Schoon of the Netherlands 18-21, 21-19, 15-13.
The 22-year-old Spaniards are each making their Olympic debut, and up to now have shined in Paris. A pair of sweeps, over France and Germany, in pool play earned them a bout with Stam and Schoon, a staff they hadn’t overwhelmed in 4 tries. Monday was pretty much as good a time as any to choose up their first win.
Now they’ll play a staff they haven’t but had the chance to beat in Canada’s Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson. Their quarterfinal would be the ultimate match on August 7.
“That’s going to be a tricky sport too,” Moreno the FIVB. “Now we simply should reset, get better, put together for the following sport and put in all the things that we’ve got. It’s an enormous alternative that doesn’t at all times occur, so we’ll simply use it to point out our greatest sport and battle for the medals — for our staff and for Spain.”
Monday’s Girls’s Olympic Seashore Volleyball Outcomes
Tina Graudina, Anastasija Samoilova (Latvia) def. Cinja Tillmann, Svenja Muller (Germany) 21-13, 17-21, 18-16
Daniela Alvarez, Tania Moreno (Spain) def. Katja Stam, Raisa Schoon (Netherlands) 18-21, 21-19, 15-13
Melissa Humana-Paredes, Brandie Wilkerson (Canada) def. Kristen Nuss, Taryn Kloth (USA) 21-19, 21-18
Ana Patricia Silva, Duda Lisboa (Brazil) vs. Miki Ishii, Akiko Hasegawa (Japan)
Tuesday’s Girls’s Olympic Seashore Volleyball Schedule
All occasions Paris native, which is 6 hours forward of Jap, 9 hours forward of Pacific:
9 p.m. — Mariafe, Clancy vs. Verge-Depree/Bobner (Switzerland)
10 p.m. — Hughes, Cheng (USA) vs. Huberli, Brunner (Switzerland)
