Tough day for Americans at Espinho Elite 16 beach volleyball tourney
Andy Benesh blocks David Ahman/Volleyball World photo
What a rough Thursday for USA Volleyball at the Volleyball World Beach Tour Espinho Elite16.
On the men’s side, the pair of Chase Budinger and Miles Evans came away with a victory, thought it came after losing earlier in the day. Andy Benesh and Miles Partain lost their only match.
On the women’s side, Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth won a match but then lost, and Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes lost their only match.
Pool play finishes ahead of Saturday’s single-elimination play.
Budinger and Evans, seeded 13th after coming through the qualifier, lost to fifth-seeded Evandro Goncalves and Arthur Mariano 17-21, 21-15, 15-13. Then they won 21-17, 21-17 over 12th-seeded Hugo Campos and Joao Pedrosa of Portugal.
Friday, Budinger and Evans play fourth-seeded Brazilians Andre Loyola and George Wanderley.
Benesh and Partain, seeded No. 9, lost to top-seeded David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig of Sweden 21-16, 23-21.
Benesh and Partain play twice Friday, against 16th-seeded Mathias Berntsen and Hendrik Mol of Norway and then against eighth-seeded Matthew Immers and Steven van de Velde of the Netherlands.
Nuss and Kloth, seeded fifth, beat 13th-seeded Victoria Lopes and Taina Silva of Brazil 24-22, 22-20. But then they lost to fourth-seeded Raisa Schoon and Katja Stam of the Netherlands 17-21, 23-21, 15-9.
Nuss and Kloth play 12th-seeded Ines Castro and Beatriz Pinheiro of Portugal on Friday.
Second-seeded Cheng and Hughes lost 21-12, 21-16 to 10th-seeded Germans Svenja Muller and Cinja Tillmann.
Friday, they play seventh-seeded Xinyi Xia and Chen Xue of China and then 15th-seeded Joana Mader and Anouk Verge-Depre of Switzerland.
Top-seeded Duda Lisboa and Ana Patricia Silva won both their matches, 21-18, 22-20 over Nina Brunner and Tanja Huberli of Switzerland and 21-18, 14-21, 15-10 over Latvians Tina Graudina, the former USC great, and Anastasija Samoilova.
Kristen Nuss tries to flip the ball past Taina/Volleyball World photo
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