Just take a look at all of those Olympians, posing in front of the Olympic rings, looking all Olympic-like, with their sponsored shirts and hats and casual demeanor that says “Yes, we’ve done these shoots before, plenty of them, thanks.” Eleven players in this week’s AVP Atlanta Gold Series ventured into downtown Atlanta to pose in front of the rings, with 18 total Olympic appearances between them, a sum that does not include Larissa Maestrini’s three Olympics and 2016 bronze medal.
And then you have Brook Bauer and Katie Horton.
Seeded thirteenth in this week’s event, Bauer and Horton have experienced the Olympics only on television. Their only official win over an individual who had once competed in an Olympic Games came in a Futures event last June, when they upset China’s Xinxin Wang.
Something this week is apparently different for Bauer and Horton, a team who for two years now has been on the border of becoming an elite team or remaining a good team that occasionally plays elite. Friday in Atlanta, they were elite, knocking off Sarah Sponcil and Terese Cannon (21-18, 21-14), before upsetting the AVP Hermosa Beach champions, Corinne Quiggle and Sarah Schermerhorn (16-21, 21-16, 15-8).
“We know that every team we face here is going to be elite. They’re going to make great plays and they’ll push us to find an extra gear,” Bauer said. “We embraced that really well, let the game develop, made adjustments along the way, and played with joy and intensity.”
They’ve done this before, Bauer and Horton, engineering upset wins in the first two rounds of AVP Hermosa Beach last month, over the 8 and the 1 seed, to earn a place in the quarterfinals with two cracks at the semifinals. Twice they were swept in Hermosa Beach, finishing with an admirable fifth, their fourth such finish this year.
“It’s an awesome feeling,” Bauer said of being back in the quarterfinals of the winner’s bracket. “We are excited and hungry to push for more.”
That push will begin with a date against the top seed, Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes, who won a pair of close sweeps on Friday. On the other side of the bracket is a quarterfinal that comes as little surprise. Second-seeded Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth also won both of their matches in sweeps, while Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson, fresh off a gold medal at the Montreal Elite16, picked up…
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