A fifth was not the dream finish — it never is lest you’re standing atop a podium — for Chase Budinger and Miles Evans at this week’s Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Alanya Challenge.
But it is good enough.
After getting swept by France’s Arnaud Gauthier-Rat and Teo Rotar (21-18, 21-12), Budinger and Evans settled for a second straight fifth for the No. 3 ranked USA Volleyball team. It is, podium or not, a critical top-five. After beginning the season with three out of four tournaments outside of the top 10, including a qualifier loss in the Quintana Roo Elite, Budinger and Evans’s entry points dropped far enough so as not even being able to get into Elite qualifiers. Even with a fifth at the Xiamen Challenge in May, they’re still No. 7 on the reserve list for the upcoming Gstaad Elite, with little hope of actually getting in.
With only a handful of Challenges remaining on the schedule prior to the World Championships qualifying deadline, it made Alanya and next week’s Challenge in Stare Jablonki that much more important: The points gained this week and the next will decide who can get into August’s Montreal Elite and Hamburg Elite. Those tournaments will have an effect on entry and seeding for the final World Champs qualifying events in Brazil – a Challenge in a city still to be determined, and a pair of Elites in Rio and Joao Pessoa – and Mexico.
Alanya and Stare Jablonki were, for many teams, the most important events of the summer, as they determined what the rest of their respective summers could look like.
Budinger and Evans capitalized on the first.
A glut of USA Volleyball women’s teams did not.
Deahna Kraft and Xolani Hodel/Volleyball World photo
USA Women Settle For Ninth At Alanya Challenge
Three pairs from the U.S. – Xolani Hodel and Deahna Kraft, Savvy Simo and Abby Van Winkle, Hailey Harward and Molly Phillips – had opportunities to create some separation in the World Champs race.
None capitalized.
After a brilliant, 2-0 start in pool play, Kraft and Hodel were upset Poland’s Urszula Lunio and Malgorzata Ciezkowska.
After qualifying, breaking pool, and taking out Canadian Olympians Sophie Bukovec and Heather Bansley in the first round of playoffs, Simo and Van Winkle were knocked out by France’s Aline Chamereau and Clemence Vieira who, to their credit, are in the semifinals and playing some of their best ball to date.
After upsetting Spain’s Daniela Alvarez and Tania Moreno in the first round of playoffs, Harward and Phillips were in turn upset by Ukraine qualifiers Daria Romaniuk and Yeva Serdiuk.
It was ninths all around for three teams in search of more, especially when Kim Hildreth and Teegan Van Gunst had already bowed out in seventeenth, and Brook Bauer and Maddie Anderson lost in the qualifier. The health of Toni Rodriguez remains in question after an injury at last weekend’s AVP League. Rodriguez and Kylie Deberg were in the driver’s seat for the fourth USA spot at the World Championships, a spot that may now be vacant, depending when or if Rodriguez can return to playing.
There will be another opportunity next week at the Stare Jablonki Challenge. Hildreth and Van Gunst will begin in the main draw, as will Kraft and Hodel and Simo and Van Winkle. Harward and Phillips will begin in the qualifier, as will Corinne Quiggle and Megan Rice, Bauer and Anderson, and Carly Kan and Devanne Sours.
