Betsi Flint-Julia Scoles peaking at just the right time; six other USA pairs in Worlds action

TLAXCALA, MEXICO — When April Ross was brought on to coach Betsi Flint and Julia Scoles on a somewhat full-time basis — as full-time as an expecting mother could be — she wasted no time in laying out the season’s overarching goal. Written on the whiteboard she’d bring to practice were the days and weeks counting down to the Beach Volleyball World Championships beginning October 6 in Tlaxcala, Mexico.

This meant a shift in mindset. Playing poorly in, say, Tepic in March? Totally fine. There were lessons to be learned, tweaks to be made, and plenty of time to make them before World Champs. Thriving in Huntington Beach in May, where they finished second? Perfect, there were elements of their game they could build on, and five months to double down upon those strengths.

“The whole mindset for season was to peak at World Champs and how you play ebbs and flows so you can’t look at ‘I’m playing really good volleyball during this stretch of time’ because every point is an individual point,” Scoles said. “Yes, those compound and momentum builds but I think not getting lost in how well you think you’re playing or how poorly you think you’re playing and going back to the basic training, what we know we’ve been practicing to do.”

It’s worked. All of it.

Scoles and Flint, seeded No. 15 at this week’s World Championships, finished pool play undefeated, with three straight lopsided wins over Austria’s Klinger sisters, Costa Rica, and, most convincingly, Italy’s Valentina Gottardi and Marta Menegatti, the No. 10 seed who fell 21-14, 21-18 in a match that Flint and Scoles controlled from start to finish.

“We’ve had our eyes set on World Champs from the beginning,” said Flint, who is playing in her second career World Championships. “This is when we wanted to peak and be playing our best. Every game is different, every matchup is different but I think we’re dialed and ready to go.”

Pool play can be, for many, something of a formality. With Costa Rica in their pool, it was more or less a guarantee that Flint and Scoles would get through and move onto the elimination rounds (they beat Costa Rica 21-4, 21-11); it was more a matter of what seed they’d take. Not that they changed the way they played, but there is no mistaking: There is a change in pressure now that they have advanced to Wednesday’s elimination rounds, where they will play the Czech Republic’s Barbora Hermannova and Marie-Sara Stochlova at 7 p.m. local time. Hermannova and Stochlova are coming off consecutive medals, a bronze in the Edmonton Challenge and gold in the Brno Futures.

“In pool play, you’re in the water, you have comfortable swimming room. And then out of pool, you’re on the high dive and you’re either diving into water or it’s cement. You’re out,” Scoles said. “You have to consistently show up and play good volleyball and that’s really hard to do. It’s an impossible task. You’re not both going to play well every game. In pool we both had moments here and there of hot and cold but not to hold onto any of it but to focus.”

The hot has been scalding and the cold has been, at worst, pleasantly warm. Their point differential in pool play was tied for first, alongside Brazilians and world No. 1 Ana Patricia Silva and Duda Lisboa. It is good company to keep in the biggest tournament of the year.

It’s company that has been kept by four of the five USA women.

Like Flint and Scoles, Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth, Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes, and Megan Kraft and Terese Cannon all won their respective pools, earning berths into the round of 32 and allegedly easier draws.

Nuss and Kloth will meet Sarah Pavan and Molly McBain at 2 p.m. local. It should prove to be an excellent defensive battle, pitting the defenders currently ranking No. 1 and 2 in digs per match (Nuss leads with 17.33, McBain is in second with 16).

At the same time, across town in Humantla, Cannon and Kraft can play spoilers to Brazilians Andressa Cavalcanti and Vitoria de Souza, the 23 seeds who are hanging onto Olympic hopes. A loss to Cannon and Kraft would all but dash those hopes. Kraft has been one of the most delightful surprises of this World Champs, playing full-time defense for the first time of her career. She is currently third in digs per match (14), ranking ahead of high-powered defenders like Nina Brunner, Cinja Tillmann, Menegatti, and Melissa Humana-Paredes, among others.

Cheng and Hughes provide the nightcap for the women, an 8 p.m. meeting with Dorina Klinger and Ronja Klinger, who survived a thrilling lucky loser battle on Tuesday against hometown favorites Abril Flores and Atenas Guttierez. In their only meeting, in the La Paz Challenge in March, the Klingers stunned Cheng and Hughes in straight sets, 21-16, 21-16, en route to a season-best fourth-place finish.

The USA men play early, with Chase Budinger and Miles Evans squaring off with Sweden’s David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig at 11 a.m. in the Apizaco Bullring. Budinger and Evans eliminated Mexico’s final team on Tuesday, knocking out Juan Virgen and Miguel Sarabia, 24-22, 21-19 in their lucky loser match. Budinger is 1-2 against the Swedes, his lone win coming in the Rosarito Elite16 last March with Troy Field. For Evans, this will be his first matchup against Sweden.

Miles Partain and Andy Benesh, undefeated thus far, are up next, against Poland’s Piotr Kantor and Jakub Zdybek at 6 p.m. Kantor and Zdybek are 1-0 against Americans in Mexico, upsetting Tri Bourne and Chaim Schalk, 21-19, 21-19 in pool play. This will be the first meeting between the two teams.

Also at 6 p.m. is Trevor Crabb and Theo Brunner, who play Australians Chris McHugh and Paul Burnett at 6 p.m. The Australians won their only meeting, a 21-14, 21-19 sweep in Itapema back in April. Crabb is a much-evolved defender since, leading the tournament in digs per match (12.33)