Three USA pairs qualify for the main draw in Latvia

They arrived from a little bit of everywhere. There is the team who traveled from the Dominican Republic (Kelley Kolinske and Hailey Harward), another from Virginia Beach (Katie Horton and Brook Bauer), and three from Los Angeles (Emily Stockman and Megan Kraft, Molly Turner and Maddie Anderson, Toni Rodriguez and Savvy Simo).

All told, six women’s USA teams found their way, in a garden variety of ways, to get to Latvia for Thursday’s Volleyball World Jurmala Challenge qualifier.

And when the day was done, three pairs — Kolinske and Harward, Kraft and Stockman, Bauer and Horton — who arrived in three drastically different fashions, moved into the weekend’s main draw, joining Betsi Flint and Julia Scoles, who are seeded sixth in the tournament.

Three USA men’s pairs are in the main draw.

Kolinske and Harward were the hottest of the bunch heading into the weekend. In the last month, they won a big money tournament in Arizona ($50,000 total purse, with $8,000 to the winners), and a crucial NORCECA qualifier in Manhattan Beach, Calif., which they capitalized on last weekend in the Dominican Republic, earning a bid to World Championships should the USA not fulfill its limit of four teams per country. They also had the most difficult draw of the bunch in Jurmala, meeting Germans Isabel Schneider and Julia Sude in the opening round, a victopry that required a comeback after losing the first set, 15-21. They’d survive, winning the second, 21-16, and the third, 17-15, though it only set them up to meet Canada’s Sarah Pavan and Molly McBain, the former one of the most decorated female blockers ever, the latter an up-and-coming talent trained via Florida State.

That match, too, required grit, a 21-19, 27-25 victory that saw Kolinske and Harward stave off multiple set points in the second before flipping it on Canada. Now, after missing on qualifiers in Mexico and Brazil, they are back in the main draw.

“It was a quick turnaround between Dominican and Latvia, we were home in L.A. for a little over 24 hours in between,” Harward said. “I’m always excited to get to play more with Kelley and always grateful to wear USA. The wins today weren’t easy, but we had trust in each other in tight moments and good communication that allowed us to play freely and finish the close matches. Today was fun. Excited for more action tomorrow.”

Joining them in the additional action is Stockman and Kraft, and Bauer and Horton,…