American men “took care of business” when it mattered Friday in Jurmala Challenge

There are two ways one could view the performance of the USA men on Friday at the Volleyball World Jurmala Challenge. The first is that, after a brilliant morning in which all three teams — Trevor Crabb and Theo Brunner, Tri Bourne and Chaim Schalk, Chase Budinger and Miles Evans — won their opening round of pool play, they each fell in disappointing fashion, unable to claim the top spot in pool.

The second, and perhaps more accurate, manner of viewing the matter is that, as Brunner said, “we all took care of business in the most important match of the day. So, good day for the men.”

Just one USA women’s pair advanced.

In the 24-team modified pool play format in which the Challenges — and AVP Tour Series — are played, if a team wins its first match, the pair will begin the playoffs in the round of 16 regardless of the result of their second match. Which explains why, in Brunner and Crabb’s second match, against Steven van de Velde and Matthew Immers, he began with a skyball and split-blocked with Crabb in a relatively listless affair that saw them lose 21-17, 21-14.

While Budinger and Evans and Bourne and Schalk showed a bit more signs of life in their second matches, which were losses to Sam Cottafava and Paolo Nicolai for the former and Zac Schubert and Thomas Hodges for the latter, the result is the same: Saturday’s playoffs will see all three American men in the round of 16.

Bourne and Schalk earned the privilege of the mostly meaningless loss to Australia with a convincing 21-10, 21-19 victory over Austria’s Robin Seidl and Moritz Pristauz. Budinger and Evans did so with a first-round win over Italians Daniele Lupo and Enrico Rossi (26-24, 17-21, 15-11).

Evans and Budinger now get yet another rematch with Evandro and Arthur, the Brazilians against whom they fell in the finals of the Saquarema Challenge and the first round of the Ostrava Elite16. Brunner and Crabb will get a fun match with the hometown heroes, Janis Smedins and Aleksandrs Samoilovs, Bourne and Schalk will meet Estonians Mart Tiisaar and Kusti Nolvak.

Emily Stockman, Megan Kraft lead USA women in Jurmala Challenge

Of the four USA women’s teams in the main draw, only Emily Stockman and Megan Kraft, a pair who emerged from Thursday’s qualifier, will move into the round of 16.

Their opening pool play victory over Worapeerachayakorn Kongphopsarutawadee and Taravadee Naraphornrapat of Thailand (21-16, 17-21, 15-11) set them up to break pool, again regardless of their second match, against China’s Jie Dong and Fan Wang. Like the USA men, Stockman and Kraft lost that second match (18-21, 20-22) but to little consequence. They will play Brazil’s Andressa Cavalcanti and Vitoria De Souza in the round of 16.

Meanwhile, in Pool A, both Brook Bauer and Katie Horton, and Betsi Flint and Julia Scoles, lost their opening round of pool, setting up an all-American match to see who would move on. It would be Scoles and Flint who edged Bauer and Horton (21-19, 18-21, 15-8), and they will play Germans Laura Ludwig and Louisa Lippmann in the lucky-loser match on Saturday morning.

Kelley Kolinske and Hailey Harward had a promising start to the day, taking the opening set over Canadians Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson, fresh off a bronze medal at the Ostrava Elite16, their first podium as a team. Alas, it didn’t last, as the Canadians won the next two sets, 21-13, 15-10. Kolinske and Harward were then in a must-win situation against Finland’s Niina Ahtiainen and Taru Lahti, a must-win they didn’t win, dropping 13-21, 21-19, 13-15.

All matches are shown on Volleyball TV. Use the promo code VOLLEYBALLMAG for a discount on monthly or annual subscriptions. 

Travis Mewhirter