Betsi Flint and Julia Scoles peaking, as planned, at the right time

TLAXCALA, MEXICO — When April Ross was brought on to coach Betsi Flint and Julia Scoles on a somewhat full-time basis — as full-time as an expecting mother could be — she wasted no time in laying out the season’s overarching goal. Written on the whiteboard she’d bring to practice were the days and weeks counting down to the Beach Volleyball World Championships beginning October 6 in Tlaxcala, Mexico.

This meant a shift in mindset. Playing poorly in, say, Tepic in March? Totally fine. There were lessons to be learned, tweaks to be made, and plenty of time to make them before World Champs. Thriving in Huntington Beach in May, where they finished second? Perfect, there were elements of their game they could build on, and five months to double down upon those strengths.

“The whole mindset for season was to peak at World Champs and how you play ebbs and flows so you can’t look at ‘I’m playing really good volleyball during this stretch of time’ because every point is an individual point,” Scoles said. “Yes, those compound and momentum builds but I think not getting lost in how well you think you’re playing or how poorly you think you’re playing and going back to the basic training, what we know we’ve been practicing to do.”

It’s worked. All of it.

Scoles and Flint, seeded No. 15 at this week’s World Championships, finished pool play undefeated, with three straight lopsided wins over Austria’s Klinger sisters, Costa Rica, and, most convincingly, Italy’s Valentina Gottardi and Marta Menegatti, the No. 10 seed who fell 21-14, 21-18 in a match that Flint and Scoles controlled from start to finish.

“We’ve had our eyes set on World Champs from the beginning,” said Flint, who is playing in her second career World Championships. “This is when we wanted to peak and be playing our best. Every game is different, every matchup is different but I think we’re dialed and ready to go.”

Pool play can be, for many, something of a formality. With Costa Rica in their pool, it was more or less a guarantee that Flint and Scoles would get through and move onto the elimination rounds (they beat Costa Rica 21-4, 21-11); it was more a matter of what seed they’d take. Not that they changed the way they played, but there is no mistaking: There is a change in pressure now that they have advanced to Wednesday’s…