Betsi Flint and Julia Scoles, like eight other of their American peers, were not in the United States to celebrate Independence Day. As has become a funny little tradition for American beach volleyball players, they were in Switzerland for the birthday of the USA, celebrating with river ice baths, breathtaking mountain views, and preparing for Wednesday’s qualifier for the Gstaad Elite16.
They kept the good times rolling Wednesday, sustaining the red, white, and blue momentum with a pair of wins in the qualifier to punch their ticket into the main draw.
“Qualifying is always a thrill,” Flint said. “We bet on ourselves here to play in a qualifier over playing at AVP Hermosa, and I’m happy with how we performed. We took a little time to enjoy our wins and now we are getting focused on our matches tomorrow. There are NO easy matches out here at Elite16s, including the qualifier, so we have to be ready to get after it each match in pool.”
As Flint mentioned, there are no easy roads in an Elite16, even a qualifier. Far from it. Flint and Scoles dropped their first set of the day, 21-11, to Poland’s Ola Wachowicz and Jagoda Gruszczynska. They made the comeback look simple enough, winning the next two sets, 21-17, 15-8, to earn a final-round matchup with China’s Xinyi Xia and Chen Xue, the gold medalists in the Itapema Challenge who had thumped Flint and Scoles, 21-10, 21-17 in the quarterfinals. This would be no thumping. In a well-fought, evenly-played match, Scoles and Flint prevailed in three again, 21-15, 19-21, 15-11.
Although it is simply a main-draw berth, guaranteeing nothing more than a 13th place finish, 460 points, and $5,000 in prize money to split, it all but assures them a spot in this fall’s World Championships. Regardless of what happens over the weekend, Gstaad will provide Flint and Scoles an even bigger points edge over American rivals Savvy Simo and Toni Rodriguez, and Emily Stockman and Megan Kraft, who are in the AVP Hermosa Beach Pro Series this weekend.
Not that they’re satisfied with just attaining a main-draw berth. The Olympic race remains a tightly contested one, and Flint and Scoles have a nearly 2,000-point gap between them and Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes, and Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth. That, however, is the long game. For now, Flint and Scoles have Pool A to navigate, where they will meet Sarah…
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