Locals advance in Long Beach
LONG BEACH — Muscle memory can be a professional athlete’s biggest asset. But teams involving a pair of Costa Mesa residents at the World Series of Beach Volleyball are trying to forget as much as they are used to remembering.
Costa Mesa’s Jennifer Fopma, playing for the first time in years with Brittany Hochevar, is trying to reorganize her thoughts after having won the previous two Assn. of Volleyball Professionals tour events with April Ross.
Ross and Kerri Walsh Jennings, reunited after more than a month as the latter has returned from a dislocated shoulder, are trying to adjust to Walsh Jennings’ inability to hit with her damaged right arm, as well as being relegated to underhand serves.
Both teams advanced out of pool play on Thursday at the Federation Internationale de Volleyball Grand Slam event at Alamitos Beach.
Ross and Walsh Jennings, the No. 8 seed, swept the No. 9-seeded Italian duo of Marta Menegatti and Viktoria Orsi Toth, 22-20, 23-21. The defending champions in this event won all three matches in Pool H and advance to single-elimination play that, including the quarterfinals, could mean three rounds on Friday.
Fopma and Hochevar, seeded No. 26, outlasted the No. 23-seeded Swiss tandem of Tanja Goricanec and Tanja Huberli, 21-19, 17-21, 15-9, on Thursday to finish in a three-way tie for the top spot in Pool G. With three teams having posted a 2-1 record in pool play, an overall point differential determined that Fopma and Hochevar earned the No. 2 designation, behind a team from Australia that they defeated Wednesday.
“It feels good and I’m excited,” Fopma said of three matches in two days with Hochevar. “I thought it would be a little tougher transition, but Brittany has the same mindset as me. She just wants to win, so we figure things out pretty fast.”
Fopma said the novelty factors with Hochevar include Hochevar’s preference for a slightly different set that Ross requested. Also, Hochevar is adjusting to playing behind a big block that the 6-foot-3 Fopma provides.
“We had a little hiccup [Wednesday’s loss to a veteran Brazilian team seeded No. 10 in three games], so it’s hard sometimes to make those X-factor plays, because it’s hard to know who is going to go where [on their own side of the net],” Fopma said. “Those can be hard to figure out, but I feel like we’re doing it quickly.”
Walsh Jennings, 37 and a three-time Olympic gold medalist, said when she is approaching the court to compete this week that she catches herself thinking, as she has for nearly 30 years, about ripping the ball over the net with a fully rotational swing.
“[Before matches Wednesday and Thursday] I’ve been scared, because when I visualize playing [swinging] is what I picture most often,” Walsh Jennings said, “that rhythm and the hammer. So, it has been hard for me to change that in my head. Once in a while, I feel like I will get [nostalgic] and want to hit, because that part of me is a big part of me. It has been 30 years of doing that. But I have no choice, so there’s no gray area.”
Walsh Jennings had some left-handed kills to go with more traditional finesse shots, while Ross ripped away for kills and produced all six of her aces with booming jump serves in the opening set Thursday.
“Ugly plays out here,” Walsh Jennings said in reference to her less-than-natural left-handed swings. “Weird is good out here, so I like [hitting left-handed]. It’s all about rhythm and it’s unpredictable. I launched one ball long and it felt like the best contact I’ve had with my left hand in my whole life.”
The 6-2 Walsh Jennings had just one stuff block Thursday after producing 10 in two matches Wednesday. But she credited the Italians for providing better competition, which both Ross and Walsh Jennings said was exactly what they needed.
“It’s huge; it’s so huge,” Walsh Jennings said of the close match Thursday, after winning each of their four sets by an average of just more than seven points on Wednesday. “I feel like April and I found a rhythm through all the ugly play, which is huge. If we can do that, we can win against anybody and we can win tournaments that way.”