Three USA women’s pairs qualify for Volleyball World Jurmala Challenge main draw

They arrived from a little bit of everywhere. There is the team who traveled from the Dominican Republic (Kelley Kolinske and Hailey Harward), another from Virginia Beach (Katie Horton and Brook Bauer), and three from Los Angeles (Emily Stockman and Megan Kraft, Molly Turner and Maddie Anderson, Toni Rodriguez and Savvy Simo).

All told, six women’s USA teams found their way, in a garden variety of ways, to get to Latvia for Thursday’s Volleyball World Jurmala Challenge qualifier.

And when the day was done, three pairs — Kolinske and Harward, Kraft and Stockman, Bauer and Horton — who arrived in three drastically different fashions, moved into the weekend’s main draw, joining Betsi Flint and Julia Scoles, who are seeded sixth in the tournament.

Three USA men’s pairs are in the main draw.

Kolinske and Harward were the hottest of the bunch heading into the weekend. In the last month, they won a big money tournament in Arizona ($50,000 total purse, with $8,000 to the winners), and a crucial NORCECA qualifier in Manhattan Beach, Calif., which they capitalized on last weekend in the Dominican Republic, earning a bid to World Championships should the USA not fulfill its limit of four teams per country. They also had the most difficult draw of the bunch in Jurmala, meeting Germans Isabel Schneider and Julia Sude in the opening round, a victopry that required a comeback after losing the first set, 15-21. They’d survive, winning the second, 21-16, and the third, 17-15, though it only set them up to meet Canada’s Sarah Pavan and Molly McBain, the former one of the most decorated female blockers ever, the latter an up-and-coming talent trained via Florida State.

That match, too, required grit, a 21-19, 27-25 victory that saw Kolinske and Harward stave off multiple set points in the second before flipping it on Canada. Now, after missing on qualifiers in Mexico and Brazil, they are back in the main draw.

“It was a quick turnaround between Dominican and Latvia, we were home in L.A. for a little over 24 hours in between,” Harward said. “I’m always excited to get to play more with Kelley and always grateful to wear USA. The wins today weren’t easy, but we had trust in each other in tight moments and good communication that allowed us to play freely and finish the close matches. Today was fun. Excited for more action tomorrow.”

Joining them in the additional action is Stockman and Kraft, and Bauer and Horton, neither of whom made it nearly as stressful on American fans back home. Stockman and Kraft did go three in their first match, against Canadian twins Nicole McNamara and Megan McNamara, winning 21-19, 14-21, 15-13. Then they prevailed in a sweep over fellow Americans Molly Turner and Maddie Anderson (21-14, 21-17). Jurmala marks just the second main draw for Stockman and Kraft, who fell in qualifiers in Qatar, Mexico, and the Czech Republic prior to Thursday’s wins.

For Bauer and Horton, this weekend will be their first international main draw of the season. The only two Beach Pro Tour events they have played together — a pair of Futures in Turkiye and Poland in 2022 — have both resulted in semifinal appearance and one silver medal. This weekend will be a taller task, though on Thursday they proved more than capable of delivering, with a pair of upsets over China’s Xinxin Wang and Lingdi Zhu (21-18, 21-17) and USA’s Toni Rodriguez and Savvy Simo (21-17, 21-18).

Bauer and Horton will open up their main-draw pool play with Latvian favorites Tina Graudina and Anastasija Samoilova. Scoles and Flint will meet Brazilians Andressa Cavalcanti and Vitoria de Souza. Kolinske and Harward will play another Canadian pair in Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson, fresh off a bronze medal at the Ostrava Elite16. And Stockman and Kraft play Thailand’s Worapeerachayakorn Kongphopsarutawadee and Taravadee Naraphornrapat.

Jurmala Challenge presents big opportunity for USA men

While six of the seven USA women’s teams in the Jurmala Challenge competed on Thursday, all three American men’s teams — Tri Bourne and Chaim Schalk, Miles Evans and Chase Budinger, Theo Brunner and Trevor Crabb — were seeded directly into the main draw.

The stakes of the tournament are difficult to overstate, both in terms of the Olympic race and the race to qualify for World Championships in October.

Currently, Bourne and Schalk are the leaders of the USA Olympic race, though only on a technicality, as they’ve simply played more events than No. 3 Miles Partain and Andy Benesh. Their average points per event (492) is well below that of Partain and Benesh (760), who will not have to play another Challenge for the foreseeable future after their bronze medal in the Ostrava Elite16 pushed them directly — if not temporarily — into Elite16 main draws. Brunner and Crabb are slightly behind Bourne and Schalk, averaging 484 points per event. Evans and Budinger have only played three events and are averaging 440 points per, their most recent being a first round qualifier loss in the Ostrava Elite16.

Jurmala presents a massive opportunity for all three.

Brunner and Crabb begin pool play with Australians Mark Nicolaidis and Izac Carracher; Bourne and Schalk with Austrians Robin Seidl and Moritz Pristauz; and Budinger and Evans with Italians Daniele Lupo and Enrico Rossi.

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

Travis Mewhirter