Quarterfinals bound: Four USA teams extend World Championships run in Mexico
TLAXCALA, MEXICO — The phone hit the ground, and there was really no one or anything to blame.
The fans forgave the offense.
There were Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes, not just posing for selfie after selfie, but snapping them, relaying the phone between the rails separating court one and the throngs of fans in the stands. Between the adrenaline of a three-set thriller over Latvia’s Tina Graudina and Anastasija Samoilova (19-21, 21-16, 15-11) and the dozens of phones and balls and hats and flags being passed from fan to Cheng to Hughes and back again, a fumble was only bound to happen. Sure enough, it did, and one unlucky fan — or lucky, seeing as they now have quite a fun story to tell, broken phone and all — had their phone tumble to the cement.
Everyone laughed. Nobody really minded much.
Just as nobody minded much when Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth, lost amid a haze of autographs and photos and all sorts of World Championships merchandise to sign, sent a hat accidentally tumbling to the ground after a sweep over Brazil’s Agatha and Rebecca (24-22, 21-14).
“I dropped a hat!” Nuss said. “I dropped a hat!”
And then, well, she just kept on signing, same as Cheng and Hughes would do two hours later. There was nothing that could dampen the mood of Cheng and Hughes or Nuss and Kloth or anyone in their orbit on Thursday night. Another close call. Another match won. Another round closer to the title of World Champions.
Kristen Nuss makes an incredible dig at the World Championships/Volleyball World photo
“That was awesome,” Hughes said. “We feel amazing, a little shaky in the first set there but we got back to our game and when we did we just took over. That’s an amazing team, they’re so steady, we know we have to play our best and that’s what we did.”
It was the second straight three-set match for Hughes and Cheng. Just as they did the previous evening against Austria’s Klinger sisters, they shrugged off a bit of a shaky start — their words — and delivered their best when it mattered most, pushing at the end of the third set.
“I felt like we came out pretty slow in the first. I felt like the adjustment was we go for everything, we grovel for everything, aggressive through everything, and the tides just turned,” said Cheng, who served two aces in the third, including on match point. “It was awesome.”
And it was another awesome day for USA beach volleyball fans.
Theo Brunner and Trevor Crabb flex after moving on to the quarterfinals at the World Championships/Volleyball World photo
Four USA pairs moving into quarterfinals
Six American teams were in action in Tlaxcala for the Beach Volleyball World Championships. Four will remain so for Friday’s quarterfinals. Hughes and Cheng, just as they did on Wednesday night, provided the final victory of the evening. They followed up on another sweep from Nuss and Kloth, their fifth of the tournament, and a pair of sweeps from Trevor Crabb and Theo Brunner (21-17, 21-17 over Australia’s Zach Schubert and Thomas Hodges) and Miles Partain and Andy Benesh (21-14, 21-17 over Italy’s Alex Ranghieri and Adrian Carambula).
It was, oddly enough, given the scores, not the cleanest match from Nuss and Kloth. Not by a long shot.
“Bad volleyball,” Nuss said. “[Taryn] is clutch.”
“It felt like the first game jitters, you know?” Kloth added. “It’s like two tournaments in one.”
Indeed, the World Championships are an extensive affair, beginning on October 6 and concluding on October 15. Both women’s teams have even changed venues, Nuss and Kloth from Humantla, Cheng and Hughes from Apizaco.
The change of scenery hasn’t impacted them much.
Both teams are now into the quarterfinals, one win away from meeting one another in the semifinals of the biggest tournament of the year. Cheng and Hughes will play Brazilian Cinderellas Taina Silva and Victoria Lopes, who have engineered one upset after another. After barely breaking pool, Silva and Lopes stunned countrywomen Barbara and Carol (22-20, 17-21, 16-14) then did it again, dropping No. 11 Germans Cinja Tillmann and Svenja Muller (21-19, 22-24, 15-13). They’ve played each other just once this season, a 21-17, 21-14 victory for Cheng and Hughes at the Uberlandia Elite16 in April.
“We’re not thinking about the end,” Cheng said. “We’re just thinking one point at a time, one set at a time.”
Nuss and Kloth, with the 7 p.m. match, play seventh-seeded Nina Brunner and Tanja Huberli of Switzerland, who survived a rollicking match against Betsi Flint and Julia Scoles (21-17, 27-25), fending off a number of set points to close it out in two.
“We get to play again tomorrow,” the forever smiling Nuss said.
Joining Flint and Scoles in ninth is Terese Cannon and Megan Kraft, who bowed out to Katja Stam and Raisa Schoon of the Netherlands (21-18, 21-17), though not before Kraft would scoop 11.80 digs per match, good for sixth in the field.
No more Aussies left for Trevor Crabb and Theo Brunner
Trevor Crabb and Theo Brunner may not be welcome in Australia when it hosts the 2025 World Championships in Adelaide. In the last two days, they’ve sent two Aussie teams packing, first Chris McHugh and Paul Burnett, then Thomas Hodges and Zach Schubert. Now, there are none remaining, so it will be a Brazilian pair, Pedro and Guto, in the quarterfinals instead.
Pedro and Guto made another three-set comeback to advance to the quarterfinals. In Wednesday’s round of 32, they bounced back from a 13-21 first-set loss to Austrians Robin Seidl and Moritz Pristauz to win, 21-15, 15-11. Then they did it again Thursday, rebounding from a 15-21 opening-set loss to countrymen Evandro and Arthur to win, 24-22, 15-10. They have only played one another once this season, at the Ostrava Elite16 in June, where Brunner and Crabb won, 21-19, 19-21, 15-11.
They will play at 8 p.m.
Miles Partain, Andy Benesh might not speak Spanish, but they keep on winning
In the wake of another two-set win, over Italy’s Adrian Carambula and Alex Ranghieri (21-17, 21-14), Miles Partain and Andy Benesh were asked how their Spanish has been throughout their week-plus stay in Mexico.
“Mas or menos,” Partain said, laughing as he signed autographs.
“Mine?” Benesh asked. “Terrible. I took nine years of Spanish and it’s terible. Terible.”
Good thing they don’t need the Spanish on court, then, as their play on the court has been anything but terible. Benesh and Partain have dropped just a single set in Mexico, winning both of the playoff matches in straight sets without much stress.
Benesh is now tied with Anders Mol as the tournament leader in blocks (35) while Partain and Trevor Crabb are tied to lead the field in digs per match (9.80).
Partain and Benesh will have their hands full on Friday, matching up with Poland’s Bartosz Losiak and Michal Bryl, who dismantled Germany’s Nils Ehlers and Clemens Wickler (21-18, 21-16). The Americans have won their only matchup with Bryl and Losiak, winning 21-19, 21-19 at the Ostrava Elite16, where they’d eventually win bronze, stamping themselves as legitimate medal contenders.
Miles Partain swings against Alex Ranghieri at the World Championships/Volleyball World
The post Quarterfinals bound: Four USA teams extend World Championships run in Mexico appeared first on Volleyballmag.com.
Read More Volleyballmag.com Olympics Beach, Pro Beach, Beach