Alix Klineman makes Olympic debut a winning one

It could have gone three.

It could have gone three despite April Ross and Alix Klineman controlling 99 percent of their Olympic debut match against China’s Xinxin Wang and Chen Xue on Sunday morning. The first set had been a comfortable but not easy 21-17 win. In the second, the Americans hadn’t been down since 2-3. A big lead hadn’t been attained, no large run pulled off, but the game was decidedly, consistently, in the hands of Ross and Klineman.

But then, just as the Chinese could have broken, down 17-16 in the second set, with an errant pass from Xue, they held firm. Wang chased down the wild pass, floating a beautiful back bump set to an open net, where Xue buried one down the seam. Two points later, Wang blocked Klineman, claiming their first lead at just the right time.

Here it would be an easy scenario to look at Klineman, an Olympic rookie, and wonder if there were nerves coming into play. It is, after all, her first Olympic Games, a level to which she has aspired since she began dominating on the courts at Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach, California. It’s the level to which everyone expected her to play when she enrolled at Stanford, the alma mater of Kerri Walsh Jennings, the volleyball great to whom many compared Klineman, a 6-foot-5 blocker with enormous ability.

Perhaps there were nerves. They didn’t show. Klineman held more than steady. Ross sided out on the next point tying the score at 19-19. Klineman’s serve put the Chinese out of system on the next, and the U.S. took advantage, as Ross successfully transitioned to take the lead they’d held the majority of the match.

Again, Klineman’s serve put the Chinese out of system. Again, Ross dug. This time, however, Klineman didn’t set: With the Chinese scrambling back on defense, she opened and swung angle on the option, deflecting harmlessly off the block for the 21-17, 21-19 win.

The first win of Alix Klineman’s Olympic career.

“It’s amazing,” Klineman said afterwards. “I was a little nervous but really excited for this match. We talked about it a lot: all we have to do is play our normal volleyball. Nothing more. Nothing less. We had a good gameplan and it worked well in the beginning and they evolved a little bit and they played really good and so it feels so good to get a win under our belt.”

As it goes with the Olympics, Ross and Klineman will have a full day of rest before resuming action on Wednesday against Spain’s Elsa Baquerizo and Lili Fernandez.

“The challenges are every team we come against,” said Ross, a two-time Olympic medallist who is seeking her first gold in Tokyo. “Every team is so good including that Chinese team and we feel so happy with that win.”

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