The second Cancun Bubble event couldn’t look much different than the first. For one, it’s day three, and American teams are still in the tournament. Typically, this is the expectation, not a feat, especially after the Doha four-star featured three female American teams in the quarterfinals, two in the semifinals, and one in the finals.
But then Cancun rolled around, and an awfully strange thing happened: Every single American team was eliminated before the quarterfinals.
Such is not the case with No. 2. Leading off is Chasing Gold’s Sarah Sponcil and Kelly Claes, who will play the Netherlands’ Sanne Kaizer and Madelein Meppelink at 1 p.m. Central (2 p.m. Eastern, 10 a.m. Pacific) in the quarterfinals. It is a momentous opportunity for the young Americans, with Olympic rivals Kerri Walsh Jennings and Brooke Sweat, and Emily Stockman and Kelley Kolinske, already out of the tournament. A fifth would add points, yes, but a medal – bronze, silver, gold – or even a fourth would make for a big, and much-needed jump, in the ranks.
The other American team remaining, April Ross and Alix Klineman, need no such Olympic bump. They’re safely qualified, guaranteed a berth into Tokyo. Yet they are surely hungry after an early loss in the first Bubble event; ninth is satisfying for some. Not for Ross and Klineman. They meet China’s Fan Wang and Xinyi Xia, who beat Walsh Jennings and Sweat, in the quarterfinals at 3 p.m. Central (2 p.m. Eastern, noon Pacific).
On the men’s end, the Americans are out, eliminated early across the board. Taylor Crabb and Jake Gibb failed to break pool, though their final match, against Italians Daniele Lupo and Paolo Nicolai, was an excellent one. On Saturday, Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena fell to the hard-hitting Dutch team of Steven van de Velde and Christiaan Varenhorst for ninth; Chasing Gold athletes Tri Bourne and Trevor Crabb, after beating defending World Champs Viacheslav Krasilnikov and Oleg Stoaynovskiy, lost a fantastic match to world leaders Anders Mol and Christian Sorum, 19-21, 19-21.
