Over and over again, Zana Muno and Crissy Jones were asked the same, genuinely curious question: Why in the world did you just fly across the world…for a one-star?
“Honestly,” Muno said after her and Jones qualified in Leuven, Muno’s first international event. “We would play anywhere we can get in.”
That’s the tricky part for Muno and Jones, and any other team looking to break onto the World Tour: How can they get points?
They’d signed up for every event they could – Bulgaria, Sochi, Bulgaria, Ostrava, Gstaad, Slovenia, you name it – only to be shut out, either via country quota or stuck deep on reserve lists. Even when the initial list for the Leuven one-star was released, Muno and Jones were buried 15 teams deep. That list was quickly parsed as teams began dropping to compete in Rwanda instead, which is happening at the same time as Leuven.
When Muno and Jones slipped into the bottom of the qualifier, they scrambled together last-minute flights. No hesitation. No doubt. Points, the golden currency of beach volleyball, would be earned, whether they qualified or not.
To Belgium they went.
To Belgium they qualified.
Muno and Jones opened the day with a 21-10, 21-16 victory over fellow Americans Delaney Mewhirter and Melissa Fuchs-Powell. They followed it up with a final round victory over Spain’s Ana Vergara and Sofia Gonzalez, 21-15, 21-13, qualifying for their first international main draw as a team.
The Americans were one of three teams to engineer upsets to earn their main draw bids. Eighth-seeded Germans Chenoa Christ and Anna-Lena Grune knocked off top-seeded Slovenia, 20-22, 21-15, 15-10 to qualify. Eleventh-seeded Michaela Kulhankova and Anna Pospisilova of the Czech Republic upset sixth-seeded Netherlands and third-seeded Bulgaria. The only team to hold its seed on the women’s side was fourth-seeded Switzerland, Menia Bentele and Shana Zobrist, who beat Bulgaria and France in straight sets each.
On the men’s side, the hosts will be more than excited about one particular upset. Belgians Lander Vandecaveye and Lars Maddens, who was playing in the first FIVB event of his career, stunned second seeded Austria, Felix Friedl and Arwin Kopschar, 21-13, 15-21, 15-13, and then followed it up with a three-set win over another Austrian pair, Marian Klaffinger and Georg Kostler, 21-17, 19-21, 16-14. In qualifying, Maddens and Vandecaveye became the fifth Belgian team to make the main draw of the event.
Joining them in the main draw from the qualifier is top-seeded France, 18-year-old Liam Patte and 22-year-old Timothee Platre; Germans Simon Kulzer and Dirk Westphal; and France’s Tom Altwies and Arnaud Loiseau.
For the French, of course, the trip to Belgium took just an hour and a half by car. For Muno and Jones? A winding, 20-plus-hour trip with multiple stops.
Whatever it takes to get some points.
Whatever it takes to break onto the World Tour.
Quick links:
FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour - Leuven
Olympic Games Tokyo 2020
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