How different are Miles Partain and Andy Benesh playing in their previous two matches of the Paris Olympic Games when contrasted with the first two?
The record — two wins over two excellent opponents, first Brazil’s George and Andre (21-17, 14-21, 15-8), then Italy’s Sam Cottafava and Paolo Nicolai (21-17, 21-18) in Monday’s ninth-place round — only tells the smallest portion of the story.
It’s how they’ve beat George and Andre and Cottafava and Nicolai that is far more telling.
In the first two matches of the Olympics, when Partain and Benesh lost to Cuba and snuck away with a sweep over Morocco, Partain and Benesh optioned just 16 percent of their attacks in side-out and jump-set only eight percent.
In the ensuing two matches? A staggering 57 percent of their side-outs have been optioned, and 50-percent of their sets have come in the air.
What’s it led to? Against Nicolai and Cottafava, a 91 percent — 91! — side-out rate, an offense so unstoppable that Italy, with one of the greatest blockers of all-time at the net, could virtually earn a point only on Benesh and Partain errors.
It has led to the first American men’s Olympic beach volleyball quarterfinal since the 2016 Rio Games.
It has led to the rebirth of America’s best team.
At this time a year ago, Benesh and Partain were breaking ground with their swaggering, new-age type of play, winning three straight Elite16 medals. Throughout the 2023 season, when they vaulted into the top-five of the World Rankings, Benesh and Partain optioned 28 percent of their attacks and jump-set with alarming regularity and accuracy.
In 2024, prior to the Olympic Games, that number of on-two attacks dropped to 13.
No explanation has been given for why there has been a sudden an unmistakable shift in style, but after the three-set win over Brazil, Benesh said, simply, “we found our mojo again.”
“We’re just trying to be aggressive and attempt our best and try to become the best we’re capable of which, win or lose, we’re trying to do,” Partain said. “Our vision is so much farther than anything, even than the Olympics. Hope we can keep that.”
It is Partain who has been an offensive visionary since he became the youngest player in AVP history to qualify for a main draw, when he did so at 15 years old in the 2017 Hermosa Beach Open. He and his brother, Marcus, befuddled teams, optioning, jump-setting, over-setting — frustrating veterans and players with far superior resumes.
The trend has continued, and as they progress further into these Olympics, they’re only doubling down.
“I think it’s been an emphasis for our offense,” Benesh said. “Like Miles said, we’re going to live and die by the sword, and we might crash and burn but we’re going to keep on doing it.”
They were underdogs going into the Paris Olympic Games and they knew it.
Chase Budinger and Miles Evans embraced that role. What did they have to lose in an Olympic Games only one percent of voters thought they’d make in the first place?
“We’re the underdogs,” Budinger said prior to the Olympics. “We were perceived as the fifth American team to start the season.”
Now they are the first Americans out, settling for ninth after a 16-21, 14-21 defeat at the hands of Norway’s Anders Mol and Christian Sorum.
There is no shame in that loss, or the finish as a whole. Norway has flipped the script in Paris. Coming in, the hype was justifiably all on Sweden’s David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig, the hottest team in beach volleyball who have made the quarterfinals after a three-set win over Cuba but have been shaky at best. Meanwhile, Norway, the defending Olympic gold medalists, the pair who has put itself in the discussion as one of the greatest of all-time, hasn’t dropped a set and really hasn’t come particularly close. Only one team, Steven van de Velde and Matthew Immers — since eliminated, by Brazil’s Evandro and Arthur — has brought a set to within two points.
The rest? An average of 14.7.
It is a form the world hasn’t seen from Norway since the Montreal Elite16 a little more than a year ago, when they won gold and lost only a single set.
“They will probably go down as one of the best teams to ever play together,” Budinger said. “They’ve been on top of the beach volleyball circuit for the last eight years. We knew coming into the game it was going to be a really tough match. We knew we had to execute our system and play a really consistent game, which obviously they do a good job of not allowing to happen.
“They’ve been playing really great the last few tournaments. They are definitely peaking right now.”
When Mol and Sorum are playing at this level, there are select few teams in the world who can extend a match with them, much less win.
Budinger and Evans weren’t the ones to do so on Monday afternoon in Paris.
That in spite of the USA turning in a legitimately respectable performance, no matter what the score may suggest. It’s just that respectable doesn’t beat Norway.
Barely anyone beats Norway.
They were, as they often are, better in every category.
Budinger was excellent at the net, blocking four balls on Monday. It is a tremendous number, higher than the world-class standard of 1.75 per set.
Mol just blocked two more.
Mol and Sorum played a characteristically clean match, totaling just five errors — six less than the Americans.
Norway picked up four aces from the service line while hitting just four errors compared to zero aces and as many errors from the Americans.
It is numbers such as that, in every category — blocking, hitting, serving — that compounded into the lopsided margin by which this match was won.
It is the third straight ninth for USA men in the Olympic Games, following the trend set by Jake Gibb and Tri Bourne — the substitute for Taylor Crabb after he tested positive for COVID — and Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena in the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games.
The other USA men’s team, Andy Benesh and Miles Partain, play Italy’s Sam Cottafava and Paolo Nicolai at 5 p.m. local time, 11 a.m. Eastern, 8 a.m. Pacific. The USA’s Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss play the last match of the day and we will have a separate story on the women.
Adrian Gavira, Pablo Herrera (Spain) def. Bartosz Losiak, Michal Bryl (Poland) 23-21, 21-18
Anders Mol, Christian Sorum (Norway) def. Chase Budinger, Miles Evans (USA) 21-16, 21-14
Miles Partain, Andy Benesh (USA) def. Sam Cottafavo, Paolo Nicolai (Italy) 21-17, 21-18
Cherif Younousse, Ahmed Tijan (Qatar) vs. M. Grimalt, E. Grimalt (Chile)
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