Professional Seaside
December 6, 2023
The ultimate occasion of the season, which is, in some methods — see: monetary, with $150,000 to the successful crew — the largest of the 2023 12 months, might hardly have began worse  for the USA.
The one victory within the 5 matches performed by American groups on Wednesday within the Volleyball World Seaside Professional Tour Finals in Doha, Qatar, got here through forfeit, as Switzerland’s Tanja Huberli and Nina Brunner bowed out with a medical damage of their first match.
Apart from that?
Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes fell to Germany’s Cinja Tillmann and Svenja Muller (17-21, 22-20, 15-13) within the morning match, permitting a 7-0 run within the third set to flip what as soon as had been a commanding 8-4 lead.
Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth, beneficiaries of the Swiss forfeit within the night rounds, had been shocked by Brazilian late entrants Taina Silva and Victoria Lopes (21-16, 21-18), who’re coming off a bronze medal finally weekend’s Nuvali Problem within the Philippines.
Whereas Nuss and Kloth had been capable of take the afternoon off, Cheng and Hughes returned to the court docket and fell as soon as extra, to Canada’s Brandie Wilkerson and Melissa Humana-Paredes (23-21, 21-16).
To cap a fruitless day, Andy Benesh and Miles Partain, taking part in their first event for the reason that World Championships in early October, fell in three to the Czech Republic’s Ondrej Perusic and David Schweiner (26-24, 17-21, 15-12).
To be clear: There isn’t any disgrace in any loss on the Seaside Professional Tour Finals. The sector is an assemblage of the highest 10 groups on this planet, primarily based on the perfect eight finishes for every crew on this calendar 12 months. Benesh and Partain’s loss got here by the hands of the World Champions. There isn’t any hanging of the top within the aftermath of that.
However the street will get no simpler from right here.
Awaiting Benesh and Partain are Poland’s Bartosz Losiak and Michal Bryl, bronze medalists on the World Championships; Qatar’s Cherif Samba and Ahmed Tijan, the 2021 Olympic bronze medalists; and Italy’s Paolo Nicolai and Sam Cottafava, who upset Perusic and Schweiner and are coming off a silver medal on the Joao Pessoa Elite16.
Any win is an incredible win.
No loss is a nasty loss.
For Cheng and Hughes, too, the trail ahead is a tough one.
Their solely match on Thursday can be a rematch of the World Championship finals, in opposition to Brazil’s Ana Patricia and Duda, the present world No. 1 who claimed each of their matches on Wednesday and now prime Pool A. On Friday, Cheng and Hughes will meet Tina Graudina and Anastasija Samoilova, the Latvian duo who gained the primary Seaside Professional Tour gold medals of their careers final weekend on the Nuvali Problem.
Doubtlessly boding properly for Cheng and Hughes is that they’ve been right here earlier than. In January for the 2022 Seaside Professional Tour Finals additionally they dropped the opening two matches of pool play. It labored out properly sufficient, with 5 straight victories, gold medals round their necks, and a $150,000 examine to take dwelling. Ending No. 1 in pool is fascinating, in fact, for it comes with a bye into the semifinals. However advancing is the highest precedence in terms of the pool phases, and Cheng and Hughes are nonetheless greater than succesful.
For Nuss and Kloth, Switzerland’s medical withdrawal is useful. They’ve three matches remaining: Thursday morning in opposition to Australians Mariafe Artacho and Taliqua Clancy in a rematch of the World Championship bronze-medal match, and later that night in opposition to the Netherlands’ Katja Stam and Raisa Schoon within the first assembly between the 2 groups.
There aren’t any Olympic factors on the road, solely status, and a mighty massive examine.
