Volleyball Today: NORCECA gold, silver for USA; Hamburg Elite16; A Team; LiMu Emu on the beach
This volleyball update includes two USA teams in gold-medal NORCECA matches, how Americans fared in pro beach tournaments in Germany and Canada, The A Team hanging out in Italy, and LiMu Emu is a beach volleyball star.
USA men win NORCECA Final Six
The defending champion USA defeated Canada 25-19, 17-25, 25-20, 25-22 Sunday in Gatineau, Quebec, to win the NORCECA Men’s Final Six.
Cooper Robinson led the USA with 16 points on nine kills, four blocks and three aces. Zach Rama and Will Rottman had 13 points each. The Americans finished 5-1 in the tournament.
Canada, which went 4-2, got 12 points from Reeve Gingera.
“We had a match earlier in the tournament against Mexico where we had to come back and win that in five, so we were prepped to fight back,” USA libero Mason Briggs told NORCECA. “We were prepped for them (Canada) to come out hot, and our goal is just to have fun and play together.
“I think we gained a lot of confidence over the tournament. Everyone did their job, and I think the team just really came together to play the best volleyball that we could at the end of the tournament.”
Click here for more from USA Volleyball, including the complete tournament results and roster.
USA women take NORCECA Pan American Cup silver
Argentina made it back-to-back NORCECA Women’s Pan American Volleyball Cup golds with a 25-18, 25-20, 25-19 win over the USA in León, Guanajuato, Mexico, on Sunday.
Argentina finished 7-1 with its only loss coming to the USA in the preliminary round. The Americans were 6-0 heading into the final.
Roni Perry led the USA with 13 points and Kendall Kipp and Serena Gray added 10 points each.
Click here for more from USA Volleyball, including the complete tournament results and roster.
Sorum-Mol, Huberli-Brunner win Hamburg Elite16 titles
Christian Sorum and Anders Mol of Norway swept Pablo Herrera and Adrian Gavira of Spain on Sunday to win the Volleyball World Pro Beach Tour Elite16 in Hamburg, Germany.
The women’s title went to Switzerland’s Tanja Huberli and Nina Brunner, who won in three to deny Svenja Muller and Cinja Tillmann of Germany from winning on home soil.
Mol and Sorum, who won 21-15, 25-11, notched their 24th international victory as the Norwegians became the second-most successful men’s team in the history of the sport.
The tournament was tough for Americans. The only USA men, Hagen Smith and Logan Webber, won their first qualifier match but lost their second.
The USA pair of Betsi Flint and Julia Scoles, fresh off a second-place finish at AVP Manhattan Beach Open, went 2-1 to get out of pool play but got knocked out in the round of 16 by Germans Laura Ludwig and Louisa Lippman. They lost their next match to Mjuller and Tillman, marking the end of Ludwig’s legendary international career.
The only other USA pair, Kim Hildreth and Teegan Van Gunst, lost their first qualifier match.
USA strong at Volleyball World Futures Halifax
The team of Madelyne Anderson and Brook Bauer won the women’s title Sunday, while Garrett Peterson and Caleb Kwekel defeated countrymen Urrutia and Avery Drost to take men’s bronze.
Anderson and Bauer downed Canada’s Marie-Alex Belanger and Lea Monkhouse 21-18, 17-21, 17-15. There were quite a few other Americans in the women’s field. Anderson and Bauer knocked out Xolani Hodel and Jade Race in the quarterfinals. Piper Ferch and Lindsey Sparks, who also lost in the quarters, bounced the USA’s Carly Kan and Devanne Souther in the first round of the winners bracket.
Peterson and Kewkel won the men’s third-place match 21-17, 14-21, 15-11. Americans Zephyr Dew and Derek Bradford lost to Peterson and Kwekel in the quarterfinals.
The A Team on Lake Como
April Ross, who teamed with Alix Klineman to win Tokyo Olympics gold and who are back on the AVP Tour, had quite a trip after the Manhattan Beach Open. Ross posted on her Facebook page from Lake Como in Italy:
Going to need a few days at home to recover from the festivities #worthit
Liberty Mutual beach volleyball
If you haven’t seen the Liberty Mutual Insurance beach volleyball commercials with the guy they call Doug and LiMu Emu, well, they are freakin’ hilarious.
And here they are for your viewing pleasure, and, no, I don’t have Liberty Mutual coverage:
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