Last U.S. girls’s pair falls in seaside volleyball QFs

In an Olympic rarity, no U.S. women’s beach volleyball team will win a medal this year.

The last remaining U.S. duo, reigning world champs Sara Hughes and Kelly Cheng, lost their quarterfinal match on Tuesday in Paris 2-0 (21-18, 21-19) to Switzerland’s Nina Brunner and Tanja Huberli.

The result came a day after the U.S. pair of Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss fell to a Canadian pair in the round of 16.

The United States last failed to earn an Olympic medal in women’s beach volleyball in 2000. In addition, four of the past five Olympic gold-medal teams were from the United States — Misty May and Kerry Walsh Jennings in 2004, 2008 and 2012, plus Alix Klineman and April Ross in 2021.

In the day’s other women’s quarterfinal, Australia’s Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy edged Switzerland’s Zoe Verge-Depre and Esmee Boebner 2-1 (21-19, 16-21, 15-12).

Men’s teams from Sweden and Germany posted 2-0 sweeps in their quarterfinal matches on Tuesday.

Sweden’s David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig topped Brazil’s Evandro Goncalves Oliveira Junior and Arthur Diego Mariano Lanci 21-17, 21-16. Germany’s Nils Ehlers and Clemens Wickler downed the Netherlands’ Stefan Boermans and Yorick de Groot 22-20, 21-15.

The last remaining U.S. men’s duo, Miles Partain and Andrew Benesh, will oppose Qatar’s Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan in a Wednesday quarterfinal.

–Field Level Media