(Photo by Hui Zhang)
Beach volleyball gets mixed results againby Leila Hanaumi on September 7, 2009 The first full day for the entire U.S. Beach Volleyball Team resulted in an even number of wins and losses. Steve Haynie and Josh Malasheskie were the first duo to play Monday at Pacific Green Bay, and they repeated Sunday's error in starting strong and declining later in the match. Within the first five minutes of their first set against Canada, Haynie and Malasheskie were up, 6-4. Malasheskie's corner serves had Canada sprawling, but before he knew it, the Canadians were getting on their feet and catching up. A reception error by Haynie gave Canada the lead, 20-19, but he quickly made up for it by making a nice hit. It was anybody's game at that point, and despite a beautiful block by Haynie, the game ran overtime until the U.S. made two errors in a row and lost to Canada, 25-27. The American men lost their fire in the second set as the Canadian duo kept playing smart. Teammate Jessica Ensign threw advice to Malasheskie from the bleachers, but it was too late — Canada had pulled too far ahead. Haynie and Malasheskie lost the second set, 21-11, and they acknowledged their biggest area to work on: their mentality. After another teammate, Laurie Achin, gave them a pep talk, the men bumped fists and agreed, "It's not over yet!" The more experienced team of Mike Bruning and Dimitri Nikiforov then took the sands. Just before warming up, Bruning said the duo they would compete against was "the strong Poland team." Bruning needn't have worried, because though Poland received the first point of the game, Nikiforov quickly took the ball back with a fierce deep-corner hit. Then he did it again. Minor errors led to a 9-9 tie, but the Poles couldn't pull off corner hits as well as Bruning and Nikiforov. A fake by Nikiforov sent the opposing blocker in the wrong direction, and Nikiforov found a hole easily. However, as he came down, his foot scraped against his other ankle. When refs said he couldn't receive medical attention from the team's athletic trainer, Nikiforov persisted, and the U.S. finished the game with a solid 21-16. The second game began with a bold spike by Bruning, and it soon became clear to fans that his and Nikiforov's hits were unstoppable. As Bruning became more comfortable with the score, he decided to experiment with a high underhand serve. The move sent the ball into a wild spin, but it somehow landed in Poland's court. Bruning did the radical serve four times — two aces and two misses — before winning the set, 21-10. "The high underhand serve is difficult to master, but it's even harder to receive," Bruning said. The action then moved to the U.S. women's teams. Laurie Achin and Stacy Nikiforov played the host team, Taipei. The only advantage Taipei had was the fans occupying the entire bleachers, waving pink signs and gold pom-poms. Otherwise, Achin and Nikiforov had an easy day due to a Taipei player's injury. Within the first five minutes, the U.S. led, 8-3, and the Taiwanese was hobbled by her taped knee. However, she continued to play throughout the entire match with tears in her eyes and a few breaks to rest her knee. Because they weren't challenged, Achin and Nikiforov didn't play their best. Nevertheless, they won both sets, 21-12 and 21-6, and improved their record to 1-1. Jessica Ensign and Nancy Moore were the final American team to play for the day. It was their first game of the 2009 Deaflympics, as they had the previous day off. They were nervous going up against Germany, but scored the first point after an exciting rally. Ensign pulled off a deep corner hit and then aced her serve twice in a row to take the lead at 5-2. Germany's smart hits, however, surprised Ensign and Moore repeatedly later in the match. "Their right side player, No. 1, also had a pretty amazing jump float serve," coach Lauren Mills said. "And when we were on the side with the wind at our backs, that jump float serve is really hard to pass. So she rattled off some aces, and we never recovered from that point loss." Despite Ensign and Moore's efforts, they lost both sets, 12-21 and 16-21. "We need to play smarter," Moore said after the game. Moore and Ensign next face Ukraine, the defending beach volleyball champions, Tuesday. |
 (Photo by Hui Zhang)
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