MONTREAL, CANADA – Andy Benesh and Miles Partain left no doubt at the Montreal Elite on Wednesday. The 2023 Montreal silver medalists took all of 33 minutes to punch their ticket into the main draw, sweeping Switzerland’s Yves Hauusener and Julian Freidli, 21-14, 21-16.
To see Benesh and Partain in a qualifier at all was a strange sight. Wednesday marked the first qualifier they’ve played in since the Ostrava Elite of 2023, an event that kicked off a string of podiums, the final of which was a silver in Montreal after a bronze in the Czech Republic and a gold in Gstaad.
Perhaps it’s not such a bad thing then that USA Volleyball’s No. 1 team was forced to earn their way into the main in Montreal, which features the only 16-team main draw on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour calendar this year. Their making it, and extending their schedule into the weekend here in Canada, is a cause for dual-celebrations.
USA Volleyball, of course, is elated to have its top men’s team into the main, the lone representatives on the men’s side. And back in California, there will be one fortunate qualifier team who sneaks into the main draw of this weekend’s Manhattan Beach Open, as Partain and Benesh will pull out of the AVP’s biggest event of the summer.
They weren’t the only American team to hedge their bets on Wednesday. Kylie DeBerg and Xolani Hodel, Hailey Harward and Molly Phillips, Brook Bauer and Maddie Anderson, and Savvy Simo and Abby Van Winkle all signed up for both events, making this weekend a win-win: Qualify, and they’re into an Elite main draw. Don’t, and they simply scoot back to California to play in the Manhattan Beach Open.
Thursday will feature a lot of USA Volleyball players on the coast-to-coast flight from Canada’s east coast to the USA’s west coast.
Harward and Phillips lost a civil war to Simo and Van Winkle, 18-21, 21-18, 15-12 in the first round of the qualifier. Shortly after, DeBerg and Hodel fell to the Czech Republic’s Martina Maixnerova and Kylie Neuschaeferova, 19-21, 21-14, 15-13. Anderson and Bauer followed up next, dropping to Emi van Driel and Wies Bekhuis of the Netherlands, 21-18, 21-16.
It left just Simo and Van Winkle, matched up with top-seeded Raisa Schoon and Mila Konink, also of the Netherlands.
They, too, will be headed back to California, the final USA team to drop in the qualifier, losing 21-14, 11-21, 15-8.
Also qualifying for the women were Spain’s Daniela Alvarez and Tania Moreno, Australia’s Georgia Johnson and Elizabeth Alchin, and Australia’s Taliqua Clancy and Jana Milutinovic.
For the men, Partain and Benesh were just one of two teams to hold their seed. Second-seeded Aussies Izac Carracher and Mark Nicolaidis used two sweeps to punch their ticket, while No. 11 Marco Grimalt and Esteban Grimalt claimed a pair of upsets to move into the main draw, the final an 18-21, 23-21, 15-12 stunner over Brazil’s George Wanderley and Saymon Barbosa.
The final qualifying team, fifth-seeded Germans Lukas Pfretzschner and Sven Winter, had little trouble, sweeping both to make their first Elite main draw since Quintana Roo in March.
Benesh and Partain begin the main draw at 6:30 p.m. local against Brazil’s Arthur and Evandro on Thursday.
