On Saturday evening, after a pair of semifinal demolitions at the Paris Elite16 kudos of Ana Patricia Silva and Duda Lisboa (21-16, 21-12 over the Netherlands), and Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth (21-13, 21-17 over Italy), Rich Lambourne wondered aloud on Volleyball World TV what it might look like if both teams were to deliver similarly strong performances against one another in Sunday’s finals.
For 15 minutes Sunday, it appeared viewers would not be treated to such a final.
Brazil whacked the USA, 21-10, in the opening set of the gold-medal match. Such a score is not unusual for Ana Patricia and Duda. They entered the match having won 26 of their previous 27, and in their five matches before the final in Paris, they had won sets by scores of 21-14, 21-13 (twice), 21-12 (also twice), and 21-10 over one of the best teams in the world in Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson.
They were the best team in the world playing very much like the best team in the world.
Before that opening set, however, Nuss and Kloth, the third-ranked team in the world, had played very much like the No. 2-ranked team in the world. Like Ana Patricia and Duda, they hadn’t dropped a match in Paris. Like Ana Patricia and Duda, only one team had managed to claim a set off of them entering the final. Like Ana Patricia and Duda, their semifinal win was as smooth and easy as a Sunday stroll.
The final was the No. 1 seed vs. the 2, and, in Paris at least, there was a significant gap between them and every other team in the field.
But a 17-6 run by Brazil to close the first set made a convincing case that they were the 1 seed — and held a significant gap between every other team in the field. Brazil piled up nearly as many aces (8) in the first set as the USA did points.
If there’s an Achilles Heel to Duda and Ana Patricia, it is of the first-world variety. Big leads occasionally precede lackadaisical play. In the Tepic Elite16, they beat fellow Brazilians Barbara and Carol, 21-13, and wound up losing the ensuing set and the match. Later, in the gold-medal match, a 21-15 second-set win over Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes was followed by a 10-15 snoozer in the third. A 21-13 opening-set win in Gstaad against Betsi Flint and Julia Scoles wasn’t sustained, and they went three, just as they did in Montreal after winning the first, 21-14, though they wound up losing in Montreal, giving up a 14-9 lead in the third set.
It’s picking at nits. If building…
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