American Women Struggle

The FIVB international volleyball tournament in Hermosa Beach was billed as an Olympic preview, but it’s a good thing for the American women that it wasn’t the real thing.

Only one of the three Olympic-bound U.S. women’s teams--second-seeded Holly McPeak and Nancy Reno--made it to Sunday’s semifinal, where they lost to top-seeded Jackie Silva and Sandra Pires of Brazil, 15-9.

Pires and Silva went on to win the event by defeating fellow Brazilians Adriana Samuel and Monica Rodrigues, 12-9, 12-8 in the final, which is a best-of-three format.

McPeak and Reno placed third after defeating the fourth-seeded team of Kerri Pottharst and Natalie Cook of Australia, 15-4, in a consolation match.

The Americans had plenty of opportunities to play for the title, but they failed to come through in their semifinal against the Brazilians.

In that match, the score was tied three times until, at 8-8, Silva and Pires went on a 7-1 run to seal the victory. Two of those points were the result of errors by Reno, whose blocking and defense were off at times.

“We started off playing Holly more because we thought she’d be the weaker side, but then we switched to Reno,” Silva said. “And Sandra had some great blocks against Reno.”

Reno refused to speak to reporters following the matches against the Brazilians and Australians on Sunday. The team has been the focus of much media attention since Reno initiated a breakup in April, just months after earning the country’s only automatic berth into the Olympics with McPeak.

They joined forces again three weeks ago and have not been as consistent as they were before the breakup, winning one tournament and placing third in two others.

“We jut need to get our focus and our rhythm back,” McPeak said. “We haven’t found that yet and I think it’s because it wasn’t that long ago that we got back together.”

The fourth-seeded team of Jan Kvalheim and Bjorn Maaside of Norway defeated second-seeded Franco Vieira Neto and Roberto Lopes Costa of Brazil, 12-8, 12-5 in the men’s final.

With the top U.S. men skipping Hermosa Beach to compete in a pro event in Cleveland, the best American finish was seventh-place by Sinjin Smith and Carl Henkel.