Big Sunday for USA in Ostrava Elite16 with silver and bronze medals won

By Sunday afternoon, Terese Cannon didn’t have much left to say. She’s played a lot of volleyball these last two weeks, 14 matches in two tournaments spanning two continents and a nine-hour time zone shift. She’s played 13 Olympians, recovered from two devastating losses and, because she’s Terese Cannon, has done it all with an awful big smile on her face.

“Pretty fun week right from the start,” Cannon said.

Indeed, it could be described, with a small pinch of understatement, as pretty fun to win a silver medal at an Elite16, as Cannon and Sarah Sponcil did on Sunday at the Ostrava Elite16.

They followed up a successful qualifier sweep on Wednesday by claiming the top spot in pool on Friday and continued from there, making quick work of Swiss Olympic bronze medalists Anouk Verge-Depre and Joana Mader in Saturday’s quarterfinals (21-16, 21-14). On Sunday morning, they upset Canadian Olympians Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson for the second straight tournament (19-21, 23-21, 15-13). In so doing, they extended a remarkable streak of American success in Elite16s, making it three consecutive events in which an American pair contended for gold.

In the end, that gold would go to Brazilians and world No. 1 Ana Patricia and Duda (21-17, 14-21, 12-15).

But the silver medal itself is only one measurement of success when it comes to the Olympic race, which will end a year from this week, likely concluding in Ostrava of 2024. Beyond that — and the $20,000 Cannon and Sponcil will split for their silver — is the 1,100 points that came with the finish, which are critical for entry points moving forward in the upcoming Challenge in Jurmala, Latvia and an Elite16 in Gstaad, Switzerland.

Cannon and Sponcil gained 340 points on Olympic leaders Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes, and No. 2 Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth, both of whom finished fifth and split $8,000 per team. Cannon and Sponcil are now No. 5 in the Olympic race, behind the aforementioned Americans, Duda and Ana Patricia, and Australians Mariafe Artacho and Taliqua Clancy, who finished ninth in Ostrava, knocked out by Nuss and Kloth in the first round.

“Feels like we’re finding our stride and to go from the quali to the finals was the cherry on top,” Cannon said.

In the last two weeks,…