NVL San Antonio wrapup - Articles

Let’s start with the big news from the NVL San Antonio: Megan Rice/Anne Osburn broke through Saturday to win their first NVL championship. No. 6 Rice/Osburn won it in style, coming out of the contenders bracket to take out top seeds No. 2 Kristen Batt-Rohr (21-15, 21-16) and No. 1 Raquel Ferreira/Karolina Marciniak (21-16, 15-21, 15-10). The finals were played at night under the lights in deference to the 90-plus-degree heat and 90 percent humidity. The lights may have favored Rice/Osburn slightly, as they are more dependent on their powerful sideout game and less dependent on their defense than Ferreira/Marciniak. Rice’s jump float serve was on, as she hit a number of tough low float serves that were difficult to pick up in the lights. Osburn: we were definitely just trying to serve tough, we knew they were at least a little bit tired. We wanted to give it all we have; we had nothing to lose, and just wanted to go after it. Rice: “Today we played a lot better than we did yesterday. I feel that we peaked at the right time, and we really played as a team; we picked each other up when we had to. When we hustle after balls, and we stick together, and we have fun, we always play well as a team. I feel really good about today. “ The men’s division featured No. 2 Skylar DelSol/Piotr Marciniak edging No. 1 Dave Palm/Eric Zaun in a tight 18-21, 21-8, 15-13 match. In the first set, Palm/Zaun were impressive,...

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