Pac-12 Olympic medal opportunities in beach volleyball after a hot day in Tokyo on Thursday

TOKYO Two types of fires broke out on the beach volleyball court on Thursday. The heat and warmth of the women’s Olympic semifinals.

The games were high stakes: The winners fought for gold on Friday. The winners fight for bronze.

And the mercury rose.

When USCs April Ross and STANFORDAlix Klineman entered the Shiokaze Park field at 9 a.m., the heat index was 119 degrees without wind or shadow.

An hour later, when the USCs Tina Graudina and Anastasija Kravcenoka of Latvia took their first pass, it had risen to 131.

Each match ended in straight series in less than 45 minutes, but damage was done. There would be two Pac-12s instead of three in the championship match.

Ross / Klineman remained undefeated and advanced to the gold medal competition by beating the Swiss superphysical duo Anouk Verge-Depre and Joana Heidrich, 21-12, 21-11.

Alix really took over his block and that was a huge key to our game plan, Ross said of his third Olympic partner in three games. He really got on their faces and affected them a lot.

Although they had only joined together in 2017, neither questioned their partnership. I was committed, Ross said. And when we won our first International Tournament, it was kind of, Duh.

Plus, Alix explored the game more than anyone else I’ve ever known. Shed to go home and watch a lot of videos, and I’m like: Well, I better go home to watch videos!

Immediately Ross liked 6 4 Klineman’s physicality, work ethic, intelligence, and his strength is enormous. When you work on something like this, you need someone who works from their heads every day.

The same could be said of Rossi’s 2016 Olympic partner, Kerri Walsh-Jennings, a cardinal with whom Ross had earned a bronze in Rio, but whose rapid success of NCAA stars later came out of the Tokyo pier with a new partner Kelly Claes and Sarah Sponcil who reached the 16th round of Tokyo and finished ninth.

Ross said the rise of students like Claes, Hughes and Graudina will change the current game and the future of beach volleyball.

We trained against a few players who graduated recently when we graduated from Tokyo, Ross said. We were really impressed with their skill level. I wouldn’t be surprised if you see some of them on the FIVB [international tour] really soon. The field is getting stronger.

Especially with Sponcil and Claes, Ross added, you see a lot of creativity, in the field of high intelligence. They did a lot of work on a professional level, but I think it definitely started with their coaching at the NCAA. And Tiina [Graudina] has such good ball control. You don’t see much of the manual setting for veteran players. For me, it is the biggest, clearest change. All NCAA players lay their hands.

Positioning a hand, unlike a collision setting, is a little faster and gives players more options to cheat the other team, but it’s also risky because the referees monitor the sets to make sure they don’t get the ball too low, or double touch the ball.

Klineman, a former professional indoor player, added that now, thanks to scholarship opportunities, beach players start their careers as beach players, not indoor players. It didn’t even happen five years ago. So they don’t have to break old habits and learn the beach game from the indoor game.

In the second semi-final, Graudina (the first NCAA beach volleyball player to qualify for the Olympics) and his partners lost their lead in both series and surrendered to Australia Mariafe Artacho Del Solar and Taliqua Clancy, 23-21, 21-13.

Kravcenoka said: We had a good passage; the set was not so good.

Graudina shook her head. I do not agree.

We feel a little tired at the moment, Graudina said in a white two-piece, still dripping from the match. It’s frustrating to lose in the semifinals, but the tournament isn’t over yet. We have one more game, so we will be very determined to go to the next match.

When they play Swiss against bronze, they get a lot of support from both Latvians and USC.

We are so happy for our boys, Graudina said, referring to Latvian 2012 Olympic bronze champion Martins Plavins and his partner since 2017, Edgars Tocsi, who had not yet played in his semi-finals on Thursday night. Cheers to them and they encourage us. Drove each other forward.

So is USC head coach Dain Blanton, 2000 Olympic gold. Dain commented, Graudina said. He supports us both. I feel a lot of support from there.

Graudinas ’bronze match will be played at the same time on Friday (10 a.m. local time). Ross / Klineman will face Australian gold at 11.30am, making it probably even more steamy.