Sunday’s gold medal match was decided in straight sets, but there was a lot of drama in the ends of both sets. Hodges & Schubert were the first to reach set point at 20-19, but 16th-seeded Cory & Caldwell turned it around in the overtime to take the lead in the match. The Aussies even had a quadruple set point at 20-16 in the second set, but once again, the Americans made an amazing comeback to close the match at 2-0 (23-21, 23-21). Hodges was the best scorer of the final with 20 points, including four aces and three kill blocks. Cory led the winners with four blocks and three aces towards an 18-point tally. Caldwell added another 10 points, including two aces.
“I don’t even know how to describe it right now,” said Cory after the final. “Cody and I have battled all week. We had a lot of faith in each other. We never really gave up and it’s awesome! We’ve worked a lot since 2020 and we’ve been grinding both separately, and to be able to come here together today and win this is pretty indescribable.”
“It’s so good! It’s been a long time coming and we’ve put in a lot of work and it’s pretty incredible to see it all come together,” Caldwell added. “There is not a lot of opportunities to do something like this, so it’s pretty cool.”
Similarly, the bronze medal match was decided in two sets, both resolved by the narrowest of margins towards a 2-0 (21-19, 21-19) victory for Dal Corso & Viscovich over third-seeded Philipp Huster & Maximilian Just of Germany. Two aces and two opponent errors tilted the balance the Italians’ way. Dal Corso delivered a match-high total of 23 points, including four blocks and three aces, while Huster was his team’s most prolific scorer with 16 points.
