It didn’t take long to see a clear shift from Andy Benesh and Miles Partain.
After a sluggish start to these Olympic Games — a listless sweep at the hands of Cuba and a bizarrely close match against Morocco — they opened Thursday afternoon’s match against George Wanderley and Andre Loyola as a new-look team.
Or, more accurately, a throwback to the version of themselves that took the Beach Pro Tour by storm at this time last summer.
The on-two game, the jump-sets, the very foundation of their team that has been quiet in 2024 was back — all the way back. Partain took options from 15 feet off the net. From the right. From the left. From slide approaches. Fading away. Out of bounds. In bounds.
Everywhere.
Some of these appeared ill-advised to outside viewers, and most notably to NBC lead commentator Chris Marlowe, who was downright aghast at several. But this was the style that, at the beginning of this Olympic run, Benesh and Partain agreed to live by and die by.
This was what got them to Paris.
For a spell, they went away from it.
It didn’t work — not with the results they wanted, anyway. Five ninths, three fifths and just a single bronze since their silver medal at the Montreal Elite16 last July.
They came out against George and Andre in need of a spark, and they went within to find it. They jump-set. They optioned. They jump-served. They were aggressive.
It worked, to the tune of a 21-17, 14-21, 15-8 win that puts them second in Pool D and will have them beginning the playoffs in the round of 16.
“We found our mojo again,” Benesh said. “[The options] will be back. It’ll be back for eternity. We’re super happy with the style we played with today and we’re going to continue that.”
Midway through the first set, Dain Blanton, on-court for NBC, dropped a bombshell of a potential explanation why the sudden shift: Benesh and Partain’s coach, Mike Placek, wasn’t at the pre-game chat Blanton has with teams prior to matches.
They were moving forward, they told Blanton.
In the middle of the Olympics?
In the middle of the Olympics.
“We’re just focused on our next matches,” Benesh said when asked about it afterwards.
Whatever it is that happened — or did not happen — in the Benesh and Partain camp, it ultimately produced a team that returned to its roots as one that pushed the envelope of offensive possibilities in beach volleyball.
For USA fans, it is a welcome sight.
The return to the high-octane, high-risk, on-two style is exactly what catapulted Benesh and Partain into the top-five of the world rankings for much of last summer. It’s the very foundation of their team. It’s their personality, their spunk.
Their superpower.
“I think that’s the reason why we are where we’re at,” Benesh said prior to their first tournament this season. “These blockers are nasty. It’s pretty tough when they’re sitting on you. Teams will serve you in system on purpose so the blocker can line up. Having Miles push me through where I’m thinking I should go away from it, that Miles is siding out great. It’s funny, we’ll be on the court and Miles will say ‘I want you to hit it!’ and I’m like ‘No I want you to hit it!’ It’s pretty funny.”
So when Marlowe and Misty May-Treanor were borderline appalled at the areas from which Partain was hitting options, the reaction should have been the opposite: They should have been encouraged, much the way Golden State Warriors fans should be encouraged when Steph Curry is pulling up from well beyond the arc. One doesn’t put a leash on Curry, the greatest shooter in the history of basketball.
The same could be said for Partain, one of the two best option players in the world, alongside Sweden’s David Ahman.
It’s why he’s the youngest player to qualify for an AVP, why he won AVP Rookie of the Year as a teenager. He’s an innovator, pushing the perimeters of what’s possible, much less recommended by traditionalists. And now he and Benesh are back.
How back? The set they’re most proud of during these Olympic Games is the second against George and Andre — the one they lost, 14-21.
“I was happy with how we played,” Partain said, before adding, “especially in that second set.”
You could almost hear the wink and sly smile on the 22-year-old’s face when he said it.
“I thought Miles was super aggressive and passed super well and I was super aggressive and that’s the style that we want to play with and we’re going to continue doing that,” Benesh said. “Whether we win or lose, we were super happy with how we played the second set. Even though the score didn’t go well for us, we played that way the whole match and we’re really proud.”
Thursday’s Olympic Beach Volleyball results
9 a.m. — Ehlers/Wickler (Germany) def. Hodges/Schubert (Australia) 16-21, 21-18, 19-17
10 a.m. — Cherif/Ahmed (Qatar) def. Nicolaidis/Carracher (Australia) 21-14, 21-18
11 a.m. — Liliana/Paula (Spain) def. Marwa/Elghobashy (Egypt) 21-18, 21-14
Noon — Diaz/Alayo (Cuba) def. Abicha/Elgraoui (Morocco) 21-14, 21-11
3 p.m. — Partain/Benesh (USA) def. George/Andre (Brazil) 21-17, 14-21, 15-8
4 p.m. — Mariafe/Clancy (Australia) vs. Bansley/Bukovec Canada)
5 p.m. — Ahman/Hellvig (Sweden) vs. Cottafava/Nicolai (Italy)
8 p.m. — Ana Patricia/Duda (Brazil) vs. Gottardi/Menegatti (Italy)
9 p.m. — Bryl/Losiak (Poland) vs. Bassereau/Lyneel (France)
10 p.m. — Kloth/Nuss (USA) vs. Xue/Xia (China)
Friday’s Olympics beach volleyball schedule
All times are local. Paris is 6 hours ahead of U.S. Eastern and 9 hours ahead of Pacific:
9 a.m. — Paulikiene/Raupelyte vs. Akiko/Ishii
10 a.m. — Ranghieri/Carambula vs. Grimalt/Grimalt
11 a.m. — Horl/Horst vs. Schachter/Dearing
Noon — Viera/Chamereau vs. Hermannova/Stochlova
3 p.m. — Herrera/Gavira vs. Evans/Budinger
4 p.m. — Krou/Gauthier-Rat vs. Boermans/de Groot
5 p.m. — Carol/Barbara vs. Stam/Schoon
8 p.m. — Mol/Sorum vs. Van de Velde/Immers
9 p.m. — Perusic/Schweiner vs. Evandro/Arthur
10 p.m. — Hughes-Cheng vs. Muller-Tillmann
