Andy Benesh, Miles Partain defeat Morocco in bizarre win

Andy Benesh, Miles Partain survive Morocco scare

There have been upsets during these Olympic Games and there have been commanding victories. But there has not been anything quite as bizarre in Paris — even the opening ceremonies didn’t reach this level of weird — as Andy Benesh and Miles Partain’s unexpectedly wild 21-12, 28-26 win Tuesday over Morocco’s Mohamed Abicha and Zouheir Elgraoui.

Nothing about the first 35 minutes of the match suggested anything out of the ordinary. Benesh and Partain appeared urgent, focused, adjusting from an 21-18, 21-18 opening-match loss to Cuba’s Jorge Alayo and Noslen Diaz to regain the form that has them as the second seed in Pool D and the ninth overall.

Benesh and Partain, error-prone and blocked seven times by Alayo on Saturday, didn’t hit a single error during their 21-12 opening-set victory over Morocco. By the technical timeout of the second set, there were still zero American errors on the board, while Partain had kills on 12 of his 16 attempts. It all added up to an 18-11 lead that seemed insurmountable.

And then, bizarrely, the version of Benesh and Partain that was so convincing during that opening set and established a seven-point second set lead disappeared, replaced by the error-prone edition from Saturday. Errors, mistakes of both the physical and mental variety compounded into a 9-2 Morocco run, sending the set well into overtime until, at long last, Benesh put it to an end with a block to seal the win, 25-23.

Until he didn’t.

Abicha, the 44-year-old defender competing in his second Olympic Games, challenged the block. Kevin Wong, doing analysis for NBC, laughed it off.

“I call this the challenge from the grave,” he said with a chuckle.

It seemed a challenge out of frustration. Abicha was incensed before the point, arguing that Benesh was lathering up the ball in sweat prior to his serve. So he challenged for a net fault on Benesh, for seemingly no other reason than because he had one and he can’t roll it over into their next match.

But then, unbelievably, the challenge was successful.

Even Wong and Chris Marlowe, doing play-by-play, couldn’t believe it. The video showed the net moving, yes, but, as Benesh would emphatically argue after, it was the ball that clipped the net on the way down, not his arm. Benesh attempted to challenge the challenge which, of course, did not happen. On and on he argued — but…