Sochi, Russia, May 5, 2016 - Emily Day and Jen Kessy are still in the “hunt” for a Rio 2016 Olympic Game berth as their country’s No. 2 team after posting their third-straight pool play win here Thursday to advance to the elimination bracket with a first-round “bye” in the US$150,000 Sochi Open.
Playing one of the first four women’s matches Thursday on the Black Sea coastal courts at Sport Inn, the 10th-seeded Day and Kessy posted a 2-0 (21-14, 21-17) win in 33 minutes over seventh-seeded Linline Matauatu and Pata Miller to eliminate Vanuatu pair from the FIVB World Tour event.
4TH POOL TITLE
With the Sochi Open being their 18th FIVB World Tour event together, the pool title was only their fourth overall on the international circuit and only their third in their last 14 tournaments. In posting a perfect 3-0 pool mark for the first time since placing third last October at the Antalya Open in Turkey, Day and Kessy are now 30-25 for group matches.
More importantly, Day and Kessy are in position to improve their provisional Olympic ranking point total as 15 women’s teams from the list will qualify for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games to be played on iconic Copacabana August 6-18. Entering this week’s event, the Americans had compiled 3,980 points for their best 12 finishes during the qualifying period that started in April 2015.
A fourth Sochi win Friday in the second-round of elimination over a team to be determined will add 60 points to Day and Kessy’s Olympic ranking total. If the Americans reach the “final four” for the second-time since starting their partnership in May 2015, Day and Kessy will gain an additional 50 points. If they reach finals, Day and Kessy can add another 100 points with a gold medal victory meaning 50 more points.
430-POINT DEFICIT
With a maximum of two teams per country in the Olympic 24-team field, Day and Kessy currently rank third among American teams with a 430-point deficit to make up in their bid to unseat No. 2 Lauren Fendrick and Brooke Sweat, who have 4,410 points for their 12 best finishes. The top USA tandem is April Ross and Kerri Walsh Jennings with 5,290 points, but the pair still needs to play one more event to satisfy the participation requirement of playing 12 FIVB events together.
“We are not out of it yet,” said the 38-year old Kessy, who claimed the silver medal at the London 2012 Olympic Games with Ross after losing the Horse Guard Parade finale to compatriots Walsh Jennings and Misty May-Treanor. “We are off to a good start this week, I just hope we can finish it with several more wins in Sochi. After this event, we have four more tournaments, so we have time.”
9 OF 22 ELIMINATION WINS
Since winning two elimination matches in Antalya this past October, Day and Kessy have been stymied in their pursuit of erasing their “worst 12th” in the past five FIVB World Tour events with only two wins in seven knock-out round matches. Three of five setbacks have been to teams ranked among the top 15 pairs on the Olympic qualifying list, including a loss to Ross and Walsh Jennings two weeks ago in Fuzhou, China. Overall, Day and Kessy are 10-14 in FIVB World Tour elimination matches.
Following the completion of pool play matches for both women and men Thursday, the elimination round matches begin Friday with the semi-finals Saturday. The medal matches will be Sunday where the winning men’s and women’s pairs will each share the $11,000 first-place prizes.
UP NEXT
Following Sochi, the final four FIVB World Tour qualifying events will be played in Turkey (Antalya, 10-15), the United States (Cincinnati, May 17-22), Moscow (May 24-29) and Germany (Hamburg, June 7-12). Also counting towards Olympic qualification will be the European championships June 1-5 in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland.