Brazil sends USA packing with four teams in Jurmala Challenge semifinals

Perhaps this story should be written in Portuguese. Such is the native tongue of three of the four men’s teams remaining in the Volleyball World Jurmala Challenge semifinals and another one of the four women’s, making for a full 50 percent of medal contenders hailing from Brazil. Could have been another, too, had it not been for the long-awaited breakthrough of Switzerland’s Esmee Bobner and Zoe Verge-Depre, the latter the younger sister of Olympic bronze medalist and European champ Anouk Verge-Depre.

Had Bobner and the younger Verge-Depre not swept Andressa Cavalcanti and Vitoria De Souza in the quarterfinals (21-19, 21-17), there could have been five South American pairs in Sunday’s semifinals. Alas, it is just one, alongside the Swiss, Canadians Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson, and the hometown favorites Tina Graudina and Anastasija Samoilova.

Indeed, it has been a tour de force of Brazilian beach volleyball this weekend in Latvia. All told, eight teams made the trip from Brazil to Jurmala. Four are still in the hunt. Three of those four — George Wanderley and Andre Loyola, Vitor Felipe and Renato Lima, Evandro Goncalves and Arthur Mariano — remain in the medal chase at the expense of the USA. Wanderley and Loyola knocked out Tri Bourne and Chaim Schalk in one quarterfinal (25-23, 17-21, 15-9), Felipe and Lima knocked out Trevor Crabb and Theo Brunner in the other (21-18, 18-21, 15-9) while Evandro and Arthur eliminated Chase Budinger and Miles Evans in the first round of the playoffs.

The only other federation appearing in Sunday’s semifinals and medal rounds for the men is Australia’s Zachery Schubert and Thomas Hodges, a pair who has yet to drop a match in Latvia, and a pair who needed a good weekend after a string of four subpar finishes in a row. After beginning the season nearly directly into the main draws of Elite16s, Hodges and Schubert dropped all the way back into the qualifiers of Challenge events. Seeded No. 12 in Thursday’s qualifier, the Australians swept both qualifying matches, won pool, and promptly won both of their elimination matches on Saturday. They are now contending for their second Challenge or Elite16 medal as a team.

For the USA men, it is another weekend of close-but-no-podium. Bourne and Schalk now have three fifths on the ledger this season, following up on quarterfinal finishes in a Challenge in Itapema and an Elite16 in Uberlandia. For Crabb and Brunner, too, Jurmala marks a third fifth, the same result they achieved in Challenges in La Paz and Saquarema.

As far as the Olympic race — and $3,750 in prize money — are concerned, fifths are notable. It is projected that an average finish of 600 points per event of the 12 Olympic finishes a team will use in the race will be good enough to make the cut and qualify for Paris. A fifth in a Challenge earns a team 600 points. Both Bourne and Schalk and Crabb and Brunner will leave knowing they return with a small victory just as both will leave knowing they left an opportunity on the breezy Jurmala beach.

USA women left off podium at Jurmala Challenge

Both Betsi Flint and Julia Scoles, and Emily Stockman and Megan Kraft, were knocked out in the ninth-place rounds. Flint and Scoles fell to Verge-Depre and Bobner (21-19, 17-21, 15-13) after winning the lucky-loser elimination match over Germans Laura Ludwig and Louisa Lippmann in the morning. Stockman and Kraft, too, fell in three, to Cavalcanti and De Souza (21-19, 13-21, 15-10).

Jurmala marks the first Challenge or Elite16 event since La Paz in early March that will not feature a USA team on the podium. It now brings Bourne and Schalk to a dilemma: To play the AVP Hermosa Beach Pro Series … or the Gstaad Elite16, which conflict with one another  the first weekend of July.

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Travis Mewhirter