“Devastating is a pretty huge word, but it pretty much captures how I felt last night”, Walsh Jennings said. I certainly did not and there is no excuse for it. And there’s no excuse for it. “It was just awful execution”. Two shoulder injuries and Walsh Jennings’ subsequent recovery threatened the pair’s potential Olympic plans, and forced Ross, 34, to hit the sand with other playing partners at the end of last season. May-Treanor is now retired from the sport. Ross was the hand-picked partner chosen to replace Misty May Treanor, the woman who had won those three gold medals with Walsh.
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The third set was an intense, evenly played battle, and Walsh Jennings closed out with her best set in two days – including back-to-back “monster blocks” that ended Brazil and gave the Americans the bronze. The Germans upset Larissa and Talita, the top-seeded team at the Games, on Tuesday to advance. At 37, Walsh Jennings is both a world-class athlete and a busy parent.
“You’ve got to pass the ball to win matches”, she said. They played great and I know it’s going to kill me to watch that. But it was unacceptable and inexcusable. She shared with us three of the secrets that helped her get back to Rio for an unlikely fifth Games.
“It still hasn’t sunk in what we’ve done, beating a player who has never lost at the Olympics”, said Bednarczuk, who won the world championships a year ago with Seixas. They never appeared to lose a grip on the proceedings. Hopefully, Ross and Walsh-Jennings can refocus and still bring a medal back to the United States.
“We had so many chances to take the match into our hands and do what we wanted, but we didn’t do that”, Ross said. “I don’t know if I will”. It feels insane half the time, but you’re doing these exercises and you’re just doing them with your brain.
The Brazilians were the top-ranked team in the tournament, but fell in the quarterfinals after a semifinal loss to Kira Walkenhorst and Laura Ludwig of Germany. In a particularly bad stretch, the Brazilians leaped out to a lead they wouldn’t surrender, winning the set 21-17.
She went on to say that she has a “newfound respect” for the bronze match, which she and Ross played against Brazil’s other team, Larissa França and Talita Antunes.
Kerri Walsh Jennings’ age is 38 years. But if Walsh Jennings keeps going – she is not ruling out an appearance at the Tokyo 2020 Games – they might one day be able to drive her to practice.
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Since April, the pair also won tournaments everywhere from China to Cincinnati and Russian Federation to Huntington Beach.
