4th in Brasilia

Ended up taking 4th place here in Brasilia, Brazil. We started out vs. Nick/Brad as they were the 32nd seed. Brad had no points or seed value as he had never played in an international event and Nick only had 60 points and a 17th from last year in Dubai. We beat them 13 and 14. Then we played Estonia and beat them in 3 games. I was not very good that game but we scored a lot of points in the 1st and 3rd games and were able to pull it out. That was on Thursday.

On Friday we lost our quarterfinal game to Marcio/Fabio. They were very fired up and Phil and I were kind of lethargic. They beat us 19 and 16 to put us in the losers bracket. In the 9th place game we played Pedro and Pedro from Brazil. They are both young talented players who will be playing for a long time. We played well and beat them 13 and 16 to advance to Saturday.

On Saturday we played a brazilian qualifier team name Rodrigo and Bernardo. They played great in the first game winning 21-19 as they sided out every time but once. We actually sided out everytime but twice and that was the difference. In the second game it was close but at the end we scored a bunch of points and won 21-16. In the third we pulled ahead from the get go and won 15-9 or so. Our next game we played Dieckmann and Matysik. They are a new German pair with potent jump serves. We came out really strong and smoked them in the first like 21-12. In the second we were up 11-7 when they sided out and I got stuffed. The scorekeeper had the score marked down as 11-10 in our favor but it should have been 11-9 in our favor. Everyone including both refs remembered the score being 11-7 and remembered the sideout and stuff block but they said they could not change it. Phil and I were laughing about it it was so comical. Even the Germans were grinning and shaking their heads. They scored another 3 straight points until we got our heads on straight. From there we scored a bunch of points at 16 all and took the game 21-18. Our last game on Saturday was a great game vs. the brazilian team of Harley/Allison. Harley had been out here for awhile but Allison is a relative newcomber. Think of a combination of Sean Scott and Fabio. The guy is huge at 6'8 and must weight about 240 pounds. Good blocker. We won the first easily but lost a close second and third. In the second I had 5 or 6 good point opportunities that I either got blocked or hit out on and that was the difference in the game and eventually the match.

On Sunday we played Fabio and Marcio again and lost in 3 games. 19-21, 21-19, 15-11. It was a fun game for Phil and I as we just enjoyed ourselves. We probably should have won the 2nd game as we were up 17-14 but those are the breaks. We leave tonight for home. Long flight home through Sao Paolo, DC, and then driving from LAX to home. Can't wait though.