Hosts Qatar overcame the stiff resistance of Poland to qualify for the men’s final of the 4×4 beach volleyball of the ANOC Beach Games at Al Gharafa Club on Tuesday evening.
Qatar won in straight sets 24-22, 21-15 to make it to the medal match where they will take on the USA, in today’s finals at the Katara Beach,
USA got the better of Indonesia 2-0 (21-15, 21-12) while in the women’s section, USA registered an identical 2-0 win over Canada ( 21-11, 21-16).
South American volleyball powerhouseBrazil lay in wait for the USA in the women’s final. Brazil overcame the challenge of Australia 21-10, 21-11)
Casey Patterson of USA said they have been improving with each match.
“Considering the fact that all six of us didn’t play volleyball for the six weeks leading up to this, and have never played together – yes. We made it out of pool play and every conversation after that was like ‘guys, this is just practice.’ We have had time to become a team, because we didn’t know who we were or what we were yet. Right now everyone’s kind of finding their role and identity and we’re also getting more comfortable with the depth of this sand, and the guys as a group are feeling more confident and more comfortable in their skin,” said Patterson.
USA face Qatar, in the gold medal match today, who beat them in pool play.
“We played them in the pool, and it went to three [sets]. It was close. We’re going to gameplan a little bit differently, a different line-up. We have more strategies and more options now, we can switch it up based on the team in front of us,” added the USA spiker.
Patterson said he is looking forward to 4×4 beach volleyball as an Olympic sport in the near future.
“I would love for it to be an Olympic sport. Much more so than snow volleyball. Snow volleyball has its place, but for me as a summer Olympian, I prefer summer sports. I think it’s a great opportunity, because we have athletes indoors who aren’t keen to make the switch and I think this will recruit the best athletes to our world, and that’s the best thing for everyone.
Meanwhile in the women’s section, USA had an easy ride in the final.
“I didn’t expect it to be easy, but as the tournament has progressed. I think we’ve gotten better and better and we’ve kind of figured out certain plays and just a better flow as a team. But I definitely never underestimated our competition,” Emily Hartong of USA said.
“I think we just did a really good job with our ball control. Geena Urango and Kelly Reeves and I are the passing lineup. They take care of all the little touches and it makes Karissa Cook’s job easier as a setter, and in turn it makes all the hitters jobs a bit easier,” she said on being the top scorer of the match.
On their tactics against Brazil in the upcoming gold match she said: “We played Brazil already and it was a lot of fun despite us losing. It’ll be good to see them again and change things around a little bit and see how it goes. They have three really strong hitters at the net and blockers as well, so we need to make sure our passing is good so that we can stay in a good rhythm with our setting at a quicker tempo and then at the net offensively.”
Source: Peninsulaqatar
