Ross’ rise aids bid for gold
LONG BEACH — Kerri Walsh Jennings began playing professional beach volleyball in the 20th Century. She has played in four Olympics (one indoors), won three Olympic gold medals on the beach, and has won more beach tournaments than any woman alive (125).
But at age 37, and with enough surgical sutures behind her to tether a quilt, the reason she is still competing is more about novelty than nostalgia. And what she is witnessing this week at the World Series of Beach Volleyball is easily defying precedent.
“I haven’t seen [partner April Ross] play at this level and I’ve been playing against her for so long, before I began playing with her [two years ago],” Walsh Jennings said after she and Ross, a Costa Mesa resident and former Newport Harbor High star, won two matches on Saturday to advance to Sunday’s gold-medal match of the Federation Internationale de Volleyball Grand Slam event at Alamitos Beach.
“This is just a different gear,” Walsh Jennings said. “And I know [Ross] has more in her, which is the great part. This is the best I’ve ever seen her and it’s consistent and it’s not surprising and it’s where she belongs.”
Walsh Jennings’ latest appreciation of Ross, who was sitting next to her at the time, came following a 21-19, 21-17 semifinal win over the No. 6-seeded German duo of Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst.
The No. 8-seeded Americans topped the No. 4-seeded Canadian duo of Heather Bansley and Sarah Pavan, 18-21, 21-14, 18-16, in the quarterfinals earlier Saturday and are now 6-0 in the tournament in which they are the defending champions.
Walsh Jennings and Ross, 33, will square off against the No. 2-seeded Brazilian tandem of Larissa Franca Maestrini and Talita Da Rocha Antunes in the final on Sunday at 11:30 a.m.
That Team USA has gotten this far is both unexpected and unsurprising; a perplexing bit of persistence brought on by the damaged right hitting shoulder of Walsh Jennings, who is playing her first event after more than a month off prompted by dislocating that shoulder.
The 6-foot-3 Walsh Jennings has been relegated to serving underhanded and, even more debilitating, cannot swing fully to spike the ball with her dominant hand. The result has been left-handed flicks, a repertoire of finesse shots with her right hand, and an increasing reliance on the 6-1 Ross.
“I just want to cry when I think about how much weight she’s carrying and how gracefully she’s doing it,” Walsh Jennings said of her emerging partner, who won the previous two weekends on the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals tour with substitute partner Jennifer Fopma. Fopma, a Costa Mesa resident, had earned just one title previously in more than 10 years on the beach.
“A big part of me can’t believe it, but the core of who I am is not surprised,” Walsh Jennings said of a progression to the final, which was nearly halted in the quarterfinals. In the early match Saturday, the Americans staved off two match points to outlast a Canadian team that featured the 6-5 Pavan, a former NCAA Player of the Year indoors at Nebraska.
“It just shows how much we’re capable of,” Walsh Jennings said. “We get in our own way a lot, but if we stay in the present and take what teams give us, it’s game over. For some reason, we try to make it complicated, but we play so much better when we’re simple.”
Ross, the MVP of the AVP tour in 2013 and 2014, had 27 kills — including one left-handed angle shot that converted an errant set beyond the left antenna — and six aces in the quarterfinal. She then collected 15 of her team’s 21 kills in the semifinal, and has 22 aces in the tournament to justify her reputation as the most dangerous server in the women’s game.
But, Ross contends, she is merely performing her admittedly enhanced role.
“It’s all stuff that I’ve done before,” said Ross, who can earn her 45th career beach title (her 17th FIVB crown) with a win on Sunday. “I just feel like I have more of the tools to do it better now, and I’ve learned how to do it better. I also feel stronger than I was in the past, so I think there are just a lot of factors coming together. We’ve worked on our defense a ton, and our rhythm, and it’s just clicking right now, so it makes my job a lot easier too.”
Ever deferential, Ross also said Walsh Jennings is hardly dead weight out there.
“Her passing is awesome,” Ross said. “[Ludwig and Walkenhorst] is one of the best serving teams in the world and [Walsh Jennings] passed awesome. She put me up on two [passing the serve in a spot where Ross could hit away at the net, rather than set Walsh for a third touch] a bunch. And when she didn’t, it’s a really easy rhythm to set her, because she puts [the ball] in a good spot.”
The Americans are in a good spot to secure another title, but either way Walsh Jennings said these are the challenges she still relishes.
“I appreciate all the lessons this is bringing to me; to us,” Walsh Jennings said of her less-than-ideal shoulder strength. “Again, it’s just showing us there is so much more inside of us. I get asked the question, ‘Why am I still playing?’ so often, and this is why I’m still playing — to learn new things about myself, my partner and our team. It’s the most fun. It’s what it’s all about; just finding a way.”