PARIS—The sand shifted beneath their bare feet. And then shifted again. And then shifted .
with pulsating lights, in front of a raucous audience a-rockin’ and a-rollin’, slipped from Canada’s hands. It had been . Seized instead by , but its first since 1996 for the women’s team It was a tense and thrilling match that required three sets to determine the victor.
Punctuated with spectacular blocks, smashing spikes and a dramatic confrontation in the deciding set when Brandie Wilkerson squared off against Ana Patricia Ramos at the net, finger-pointing and shouting at each other. The referee tried to get the women to back away and settle down. They took no mind of him.
It was the venue DJ, rather, who managed to cool tempers by suddenly playing John Lennon’s “Imagine’’ over the speakers — which got everybody laughing, including Wilkerson and Ramos. The very loud pro-Brazil crowd sang along. Wilkerson insisted afterward it was all simply a misunderstanding.
“Genuinely what happened was, just after a big play, I saw my family in the back and I was cheering at that. She thought I was cheering at her, but I was looking past her.’’ Ramos apparently thought it was a jibe over Brazil’s lost point.
“She kind of came back at me,’’ Wilkerson continued. “I was like, what are you doing? Then she said: ‘You started with me.’ And I was like, why are we doing this? Aren’t we playing a respectful game? This has nothing to do with you.
’’ Lennon, of al.