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,…