The demise of Andy Benesh and Miles Partain in their first match of the Paris Olympic Games can be summed up in two words: Jorge Alayo.
The 23-year-old Cuban blocker, making his Olympic debut alongside 21-year-old defender Noslen Diaz, finished the 21-18, 21-18 upset with seven blocks — five more than Benesh and three more than what is considered the world-class standard in a two-set match.
“Alayo is a great player,” Benesh said. “Everyone here is a great player. They’re a physical team and I thought they played well today. He blocked really well.”
Indeed, if not for Alayo’s block coming alive midway through the opening set in a stadium set up by the Eiffel Tower, USA Volleyball fans could very well be celebrating a vastly different result. Up 16-11 in the first, Benesh and Partain, who were 2-0 against Cuba leading up to Paris, had taken control of the match with a 4-1 run that saw Cuba hit three balls out and Benesh collect one of his two blocks.
Then came Alayo.
Back-to-back blocks preceded an ace, a Partain error, a transition swing from Diaz, another error, and another transition putaway from Diaz.
In a blink, a once-commanding lead was now flipped into a 16-19 deficit.
The Americans would only lead for a single point during the remainder of the match. When they drew close in the second, whittling a three-point deficit to just one at 14-15, it was, again, Alayo who snuffed the momentum. An Alayo side-out led to a block and another transition kill for Diaz, stretching the lead back to four. Benesh and Partain wouldn’t draw closer than two again.
“Their serving was really good,” Benesh said. “I think that was the main difference-maker. They were able to get us out of system and it’s difficult to side out against this level of team when you’re out of system.”
Benesh and Partain will have two full days of rest before their next match, against Morocco’s Mohamed Abicha and Zouheir Elgraoui on Tuesday. It is a friendly draw, one that almost assures Benesh and Partain will break pool, which makes the loss to Cuba disappointing, yes, but far from defeating.
“It’s a mix of being really happy to be here and disappointed about the first game,” Partain said. “We’ve played many tournaments with the same format so we’re going to move onto the next match and we’re looking forward to that.”
Sweden’s David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig, the heavy favorites to win gold in Paris, looked the part on Saturday afternoon, delivering a smooth, 21-14, 21-19 win over Australia’s Mark Nicolaidis and Izac Carracher. It is Sweden’s eighteenth straight win and second straight sweep over the Australians in their only two meetings.
The Olympics debut of Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss, who play all three of their pool-play matches at 10 p.m. local time.
Xue-X.Y. Xia (China) vs. Mariafe-Clancy (Australia)
George-Andre (Brazil) vs. Abicha-Elgraoui (Morocco)
Nuss-Kloth (USA) vs. Bukovec-Bansley (Canada)
Cottafava/Nicolai (Italy) vs. Cherif-Ahmed (Qatar)
Another USA team makes its debut, Tokyo Olympian Kelly Cheng and former USC partner Sara Hughes, who is in her first Games. They play Barbora Hermannovaand Marie-Sara Stochlova of Czechia at 10 p.m. local time.
Also in action are the defending gold-medalists, Christian Sorum and Anders Mol of Norway, who won in 2021 in Tokyo:
9 a.m. — Gottardi-Menegatti (Italy) vs. Liliana-Paula (Spain)
10 a.m. — van de Velde-Immers (Netherlands) vs. Ranghieri-Carambula (Italy)
11 a.m. — Carol-Barbara (Brazil) vs. Akikho-Ishii (Japan)
Noon — Muller-Tillmann (Germany) vs. Vieira-Chamerau (France)
3 p.m. — Stam-Schoon (Netherlands) vs. Paulikiene-Raupelyte (Lithuania)
4 p.m. — Ana Patricia-Duda (Brazil) vs. Marwa-Elghobashy (Egypt)
5 p.m. –Perusic-Schweiner (Czech Republic) vs. Schacter-Dearing (Canada)
8 p.m. — Evandro-Arthur (Brazil) vs. Horl-Horst (Austria)
9 p.m. — Mol-Sorum (Norway) vs. M. Grimalt-E. Grimalt (Chile)
10 p.m. — Cheng-Hughes (USA) vs. Hermannova-Stochlova (Czechia)
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