COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (March 10, 2019) – U.S. beach volleyball teams earned two bronze medals and one silver at the FIVB World Tour three-star event in Sydney, Australia.
FIVB World Tour events earn teams points toward qualifying for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Emily Day/Betsi Flint took the silver medal on the women’s side, while Kerri Walsh Jennings/Brooke Sweat won bronze.
For the men, Billy Allen/Stafford Slick won the bronze in their first international tournament as a team.
Day/Flint, the tournament’s seventh seeds, went 2-0 in pool play. In the second round, they beat Germany’s fourth seeded Victoria Bieneck/Isabel Schneider (21-10, 23-25, 15-13).
In the third round, they beat third-seeded German’s Karla Borger/Julia Sude (21-17, 21-17).
In the semifinals, they beat China’s eighth-seeded Fan Wang/Xinyi Xia, 21-18, 21-16. In the final, they fell to Australia’s 31st-seeded Becchara Palmer/Nicole Laird, 21-19, 16-21, 15-13.
“Silver it is. Really stings not winning gold but it’s been a fun week in Manly,” Emily Day wrote in an Instagram post. “My partner Betsi Flint played like a stud per usual.”
Flint wrote, “So many good things to take away from this tournament, although it’s never fun to end on a loss. So grateful for my stud partner Emily Day. You make competing so much fun.”
The silver medal was Day’s second and Flint’s first on the FIVB World Tour. Day won silver in Phuket in 2013 with Summer Ross.
Sixth-seeded Walsh Jennings/Sweat had to come back from losing their first pool play match to 27th-seeded Vasiliki Arvaniti/Panagiota Karagkouni (21-13, 16-21, 15-10). They played the Greek team again in the third round and won, 28-26, 21-18. They lost to Laird/Palmer in the semifinals (21-18, 18-21, 15-12) before beating Wang/Xia (21-19, 21-19) for third place.
“We played a little bit tight in our first match and that got into our way a little bit,” Walsh Jennings said. “But we just wanted to win and used that hunger to take the next match.”
Sydney was the fourth FIVB World Tour events for Sweat and Walsh Jennings. It is their second bronze medal after finishing third at the Chetumal 3-star.
Sweat has one silver medal, five bronze medals, while Walsh Jennings has 55 gold, 18 silver and 12 bronze medals in the World Tour.
The Sydney bronze was the second World Tour medal for Slick (he won bronze in Tokyo with Casey Patterson in 2018) and the first for Allen.
Slick and Allen, seeded fifth, won the bronze medal match in Sydney by forfeit to the French pair of Youssef Krou and Edouard Rowlandson. Krou suffered a shoulder injury during semifinal play against Chile’s Marco and Esteban Grimalt, who won the tournament.
Slick/Allen went 1-1 in pool play, falling to their U.S. compatriots Reid Priddy/Theo Brunner, 21-16, 19-21, 15-12.
Five U.S. men’s teams made it into the second round and three made it to the third, where Slick/Allen upset top seeded Jake Gibb/Taylor Crabb of the U.S., 19-21, 21-18, 15-9.
Slick/Allen lost in the semis to Italy’s Enrico Rossi/Adrian Carambula, 21-16, 21-16.
Sydney 3-Star Results
Women
1 Becchara Palmer/Nicole Laird AUS
2 Emily Day/Betsi Flint
3 Brooke Sweat/Kerri Walsh Jennings
17T Brittany Howard/Kelly Reeves
DNQ Brittany Hochevar/Carly Wopat
Men
1 Marco Grimalt/Esteban Grimalt CHI
2 Enrico Rossi/Adrian Carambula ITA
3 Billy Allen/Stafford Slick
5T Jake Gibb/Taylor Crabb
5T John Hyden/Ryan Doherty
9T Theo Brunner/Reid Priddy
9T Bill Kolinske/Miles Evans
DNQ Casey Patterson/Chase Budinger
KG SPEU 1-STAR
The U.S. men’s team of Mark Burik/Ian Satterfield made it through two round of qualification and were seeded 15th out of 16 teams in the main draw at the FIVB World Tour one-star in Kg Speu, Cambodia.
The pair went 2-0 in pool play and advanced to the quarterfinals where they lost to eventual tournament silver medalists Grant Goldschmidt/Leo Williams of South Africa.
Kg Speu 1-Star Results
1 Maxim Sivolap/Artem Yarzutkin RUS
2 Grant Goldschmidt/Leo Williams RSA
3 Mads Rosager/Jacob Stein Brinck DEN
5T Mark Burik/Ian Satterfield
DNQ Mark Lemke/Kenneth Matthews