For this year’s World Championships, the Beach Volley Blog is following two teams, Canadian men Dan Dearing & Sam Schacter and Cuban women Leila Martinez & Lidianny Echeverria. They both got their world championship campaigns underway today. Both were considered underdogs and sadly for our teams, neither were able to pull of upsets. They did play some phenomenal volleyball though and have reason to be optimistic going forward.
This is part of a series covering the Beach World Championships in Rome. If you would like to understand why the focus is on Canada and Cuba, please check out this post from yesterday.
Dearing and Schacter thrill but fall just short
There are few things I like more than a great come back by an underdog. Dan Dearing and Sam Schacter were facing one of Italy’s biggest teams in the iconic Foro Italico and the first set of their match provided a dream storyline for their heroes journey. For large stretches of the match it looked like we were going to get just that, but their opening set match will just make the bigger narrative all the more exciting.
Daniele Lupo & Alex Ranghieri were the foes for the opening chapter, but I have to admit, they aren’t easy to cheer against. I’ve got to think a bit more about cast my villains. Lupo and Ranghieri aren’t very villainous. Actually, chapter three of this story will have an evil villain, but I’m not sure how much I want to go into that.
Set One
Facing the giants on their home soil, San and Dan showed their ridiculous athleticism again and again. A crazy scramble play leading to Dearing attacking an open net sent a clear message that they came to win. After jumping to a three point lead, they let the Italians come back and eventually fell behind by three themselves, 16-13. The Italians were gifted way to many points on Canadian service errors.
When the Italians reached their first set point up 20-17 it seemed all hope for the opening set was lost. Cue the dramatic music. Lupo short serve to Dearing and Sam sets over into an open space on two. Wait, what? And it worked. Set point number one saved. Now for the hard part, scoring from the service line. Clutch dig by Schacter, a less than great transition set by Dearing but Sam flashes one onto the back tape and the suddenly nervous Italians call time out.
Out of the timeout Dan gets a block, 20-20! Next Sam’s serve gives Italy all kinds of trouble and Canada is attacking a free ball. Dan’s bump set goes over! Chance lost, but no! Redemption! Dan Dearing gets his second block in a row and Canada leads 21-20. Next point Lupo mishandles the set and the five point run is complete. Canada wins, Canada wins! (the first set) Its amazing what can happen when you serve the ball in five times in a row.
Set two
Dan Dearing started the second with another block giving Canada a 2 – 0 lead and himself an amazing three blocks in his last three block attempts. On the other side of the net these guys kept hammering the ball.
Then a pattern started to emerge. The athletic Canadians extended a lot of rallies by getting block touches and running down shots, but the long points started going Italy’s way. It felt like every time there was a chance to score, something wouldn’t click and even if my eyes told me Sam and Dan were outplaying the Italians, the scoreboard didn’t show it. And the serving woes continued.
Canada were down three through the mid point of set two when they put together a nice run of points and took the lead 15-14. Italy gets a trickle ace to get back in front and then one of those frustrating points where it felt like Sam and Dan could have sided out 10 different times ended with Lupo going over on one for a 16 – 18 lead instead of a 17 – 17 tie. Alex Ranghieri took it from their with his biggest swing of the day followed by an ace and a swing through the block.
Set three
Set three started out all wrong. Another transition set went astray and Ranghieri scored a break for Italy. Another point got away from Canada, another bad set, and the first side switch was 4-1 for Italy. Our brave heroes held the gap between 2 and 3 points until that pivotal point when they had to go on a run. Instead it was Italy that ran off three in a row to go up 11-6.
But still Canada fought on. Schacter nearly embedded a Mikasa into Lupo’s chest with a transition kill. Down 12 – 10 Schacter’s short serve to Alex gives the Italian some trouble, Dearing controls his block touch and provides a perfect set to Sam. Italy is scrambling, the score keeper is ready to move the score to 12 – 11, but Sam swings straight into Ranghieri’s massive block. The Italians are off the hook, the Canadians are out of bullets. But maybe not. Dearing bounces one down the line to save match point and then gets another block, but in the end its Daniele Lupo that sides out down the seam.
| Dan Dearing & Sam Schachter’s World Championship Schedule | ||||
| Date | Stage | Opponent | Nationality | Result |
| June 10th | Pool B | Daniele Lupo & Alex Ranghieri | Italy | Loss (22-20, 18-21, 12-15) |
| June 11th | Pool B | Michal Bryl & Bartosz Losiak | Poland | |
| June 13th | Pool B | Christiaan Varenhorst / Steven van de Velde | Netherlands |
Pool B challenges
It doesn’t get any easier for Dan and Sam. The number one seed in their difficult pool is Poland’s Michal Bryl & Bartosz Losiak. As I explained yesterday, Pool B is much more difficult than it should be Poland dropped their opener to Christiaan Varenhorst & Steven van de Velde 21-23, 13-21. That means tomorrow’s match between Dearing & Schacter and Bryl & Losiak is going to feel like an elimination match. In a four team pool with full pool play, this isn’t exactly “do or die”, but it is “do or put yourself on life support”. The wounded Poles and our Canadians play an early evening match on court three. Italy and the Dutchies play the last match of the day on stadium court.
Leila and Lidy drop opener to Americans Sponcil & Cannon
Leila Martinez & Lidianny Echeverria started their World Championships several hours before the Canadian men. They didn’t get the Stadium Court experience, but their challenge was just as big. They knew they had the skills to play with Sarah Sponcil & Terese Cannon, but they haven’t had many chances to challenge themself against this level of competition.
Cuba started a bit slow against the Americans. It didn’t take long for the Sarah and Terese to build a 10-4 lead. Many of the early points came through Sponcil’s great defense and transition attacks. There was also a Cannon block, but other than the score line, it was obvious these were evenly matched teams.
Down 11-6 Cuba started to show Sarah and Terese that they were still a long ways from victory. Leila was covering the whole court on defense and Lidianny showed great quickness to keep plays alive. Lidy started to get her block going heading into the technical timeout. At 5′ 11″ (180 cm) she is a much bigger presence at the net than you’d expect. Cannon and Sponcil maintained control to finish the set 21-16, but the Americans had to work hard for many of their points.
Stepping up their game
In the second set Lidy started demonstrating her power with some huge swings from wide sets. Cuba brought the lead into the first side switch up 4-3 after a big block. America stormed back with service pressure that built a 10 – 7 lead. More of Sponcil’s trademark defense gave the Americans a 14-9 lead, but Cuba didn’t give up.
After solid play and an ace they found themselves trailing by just two, 15-13. Leila got a dig on the next point, but Lidy must have touched on the block because she passed over instead of setting her partner for the kill. America recovered from their maintained the gap in the score. Echeverria got a point back through another block on the next opportunity closing the lead to 16-15. After trading sideouts, it was Leila’s turn to score with a hit past a pulling blocker. Suddenly the score was 17-17 and a third set seemed like a real possibility.
Credit to the Americans though, who handled the relentless pressure from Cuba. Terese Cannon blistered an attack down the middle to stop the momentum and then delivered an ace deep down the middle to put her team up 19 -17. After Cuba called timeout, Cannon’s serve put Cuba slightly out of system resulting and Lidy hit into the net. Cuba made things interesting through another Leila stop and transition kill making in 19-20. Cuba found a lot of success through service pressure, but Leila’s attempt at one more big serve landed just wide of the court and gave America the match.
Cubans have reasons to be optimistic
Leila Martinez & Lidianny Echeverria may have lost their opening match at the World Championships, but there were plenty of positives for them to build on going forward. As I mentioned earlier, the Cuban women don’t get many opportunities to play at the highest level and that has everything to do with economics and nothing to do with talent.
They have some big tournament experience, but they don’t get to test themselves against the best and grow from those experiences in the way that other teams do. Other teams get to grow from tournament to tournament, but for the Cubans in Rome, they have to grow from set to set or even point to point. Today against the Americans they did just that. This means that the longer they stick around in Rome the better and more dangerous they will become.
| Leila Martinez & Lidianny Echeverria’s World Championship Schedule | ||||
| Date | Stage | Opponent | Nationality | Result |
| June 10th | Pool H | Terese Cannon & Sarah Sponcil | USA | Loss (16-21, 19-21) |
| June 12th | Pool H | Mariafe Artacho & Taliqua Clancy | Australia | |
| June 13th | Pool H | Farida El Askalany & Doaa Elghobashy | Egypt |
Martinez and Echeverria get a day off tomorrow before they face one of the tournament favorites, Mariafe Artacho & Taliqua Clancy of Australia. The Australians easily dispatched Egyptians Farida El Askalany & Doaa Elghobashy in their opening match, but Leila and Lidy will be a much bigger challenge.