Evandro and Bruno got their first team win, Mol and Sorum finally lost, Talique Clancy and Mariafe Artacho del Solar pick up their first win of 2019 and America sent yet another women’s team to the podium. The weather was surprisingly hot in Warsaw where the majority of World Championship bound teams played in their final tournament before the big one in Hamburg. It was entertaining and perhaps it was an indication of the way things will go at the biggest event of the summer in just 11 days.

Australians gaining momentum ahead of World Championships

The tournament schedule was a bit different in Warsaw from recent events. The women’s tournament was always a stage or two ahead of the men’s after group play finished. So, it was on Saturday that the women’s semifinals and finals were played and Clancy and Artacho del Solar came up big. The Australian women have been in fine form all year with their only disappointing performance coming at home in Sydney way back in March, but they had yet to claim a gold in 2019. This victory comes at just the right time heading into Hamburg where they are the top seed in a very difficult group.

Artacho and Clancy celebrate a big point in the Gold Medal match. Photo by FIVB.

Clancy and Artacho del Solar didn’t just breeze into the Warsaw final. In the second round it took three sets for them to overcome Americans Kelly Claes and Sarah Sponcil and in the third round it was three more sets to get past Brazil’s Rebecca Cavalcanti and Ana Patricia Silva (15 – 13 in the 3rd set). In the final they faced two set points in the first set before putting together four unanswered points to seize control of the match. Americans Kelley Larson and Emily Stockman seemed to be in control and on their way to their first gold, but Talique Clancy and Mariafe Artacho had very different ideas and caught fire at just the right moment. Artacho hit a stinger that Stockman couldn’t quite control with her hands on the first set point. Then her tough serve put the Americans out of system creating a chance for Clancy, which she buried. Maraife kept the pressure on, beating Larson with a cruel float serve deep and down the line. The momentum had completely switched when Australia served for their first set point and when Artacho dug Larson’s angle hit, there was no doubt she would get the point with her shot down the line in transition.

When the knockout draw was made for the women, it looked like Brazil’s Ana Patricia and their Brazilian rivals Duda and Agatha were on an inevitable collision course, but that wasn’t to be. Duda and Agatha ran into an absolute buzz saw in Kelley Larsen and Emily Stockman in the semifinal. That matchl was only about 3 minutes old and the score was already 7 – 1 for the Americans. Duda showed that she is among the hardest hitters on the World Tour by bouncing a few highlight reel hits, but the net belonged to Kelley and Emily was everywhere on defense, including digging some big Brazilian hits in key moments. Larson and Stockman’s run to the final was even more impressive considering they had to play a country qualifier, meaning they played two more days than any of the other teams in the final stages. Perhaps the extra matches caught up to them when they were unable to close out the first set of the final and couldn’t mount a real challenge in the second. Their silver was their best ever finish in 15 FIVB World Tour events. Their silver makes the US women’s country quota race an even more thrilling mess.

You don’t have to watch this for very long to see the surprising domination Larson and Stockman showed over last year’s World Tour Finals Champions.

Evandro and Bruno strike gold

Just three weeks ago in Jinjiang Norway’s Beach Volley Vikings beat Evandro and Bruno in a three-set thriller. In that one, Brazil won the first set and Evandro’s serving was causing all kinds of problems before Mol and Sorum pulled off a great escape. This time it looked like it was going to be a route as the young Norwegiens managed to sideout on Evandro’s serve every time in set one and if Bruno wasn’t having his hits mercilessly blocked by Anders, he was weakly swinging into the net again and again. Bruno was out of sorts, Norway was on cruise control and the first set ended 21 -11. There was no indication that a major change was on the horizon, but in set two Evandro began to dominate. “He was a monster in this tournament and I give him all the credit. I was so close to giving up, but Evandro pushed me hard to keep going,” Bruno said in a post match interview.

Mol continued to block and extraordinary number of shots in the second set, but it didn’t matter. When Evandro wasn’t ripping aces, he was at least getting Norway out of system. And Bruno grew off of Evandro’s energy and started to do what Bruno does best, gobbling up shots and using his great vision to find the few centimeters of sand that Christian Sorum couldn’t cover. Mol and Sorum have showed maturity far beyond their years over the last 12 months and managed to stay calm in pressure situations again and again, but this time Evandro’s pressure proved to be too much. Evandro’s huge 6 foot 11 inch frame and enormous wingspan became a bigger and bigger factor at the net and Sorum suddenly was unable to find his shots or hit past the big blocker. The Brazilians finished out the match with a 15 – 11 win in the third set. The Warsaw Gold is their first tournament win since joining forces in February.

Bruno and Evandro celebrate the first of what is likely to be many World Tour Gold medals for their new partnership. Photo by FIVB.

The recipe for beating Mol and Sorum

Apparently the Beach Volley Vikings aren’t invincible after all. The rest of the teams in the World Championships will be encouraged that the trophy isn’t already being engraved in Hamburg. Unfortunately for most teams, it appears that the formula for beating Mol and Sorum includes having a giant blocker with a huge serve. Not many teams have an Evandro, but Stoyanovskiy is certainly in that mold. He and Krasilnikov had Mol and Sorum on the ropes in the semifinal only to see Norway escape in a thrilling three setter. It was the most entertaining match I’ve seen in a while. Russia were up 14 -11 in the third with three match points to play with. With their first serve, they picked up Sorum’s shot and had a chance to win it, but couldn’t get the ball to go down. Then Mol took over. It felt like Stoyanovskiy and Krasilnikov had 10 match points, but Norway rebuffed them each time before finally winning 23 – 21. Daniele Lupo and Paolo Nicolai made a return in Warsaw and Nicolai is definitely another guy that could knock the Norwegians out of the tournament with his powerful serve and blocking at the net. Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena are another team that come to mind, when Phil’s serve is on. Unfortunately Phil and Nick had to withdraw from Warsaw in the second round due to an injury to Phil and he is racing the clock to get healed up before the World Championships.

Mol and Sorum’s great escape in the semifinal against Stoyanovskiy and Krasilnikov.

Evandro and Bruno almost got sent home in the second round as Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Janis Smedins one the first set and were in a good position to win in the second set. The ‘Lion King’ was enjoying a very loud pro-Latvian fan base, but they seemed to get into Evandro’s head more than you’d expect. They made a lot of noise as he was serving and at one point after he hit an ace, both he and Bruno turned to the fans and raised their arms in defiant triumph. That was some good entertainment for an early round match. In the third round they faced an even sterner test in Russian’s Nikita Liamin and Taras Myskiv who had several chances to win it in the second set before dropping that one 26 – 24 and then getting routed in the third.

Poland unable to shine at home

Unfortunately for Poland, Bartosz Losiak was unable to play because of an injury, so he and Piotr Kantor were unable to defend their Warsaw Open gold from 2018. Polish beach legend, Mariusz Prudel, filled in admirably and partnered with Kantor for a ninth place finish. Grzegorz Fijalek and Michal Bryl had a disappointing home tournament and finished ninth, although they entered as the number one seed.

Prudel shows that he’s still got what it takes to be a force on the World Tour. Photo by FIVB.