Evans/Budinger End Olympic Run in Round of 16

PARIS, France (August 5, 2024) – The U.S. beach team of Miles Evans and Chase Budinger fell to the defending Olympic gold medalists Anders Mol and Christian Sørum of Norway, 2-0 (21-16, 21-14) in the Round of 16 in Paris on Monday. Evans/Budinger earned a pair of wins and placed ninth in their first Olympic appearance.

Evans and Budinger each scored 12 points. Evans recorded match-highs of 12 kills and nine digs. Budinger totaled eight kills, four blocks and three digs. Mol/Sørum led in kills (22-20), blocks (6-4) and aces (4-0) while making four fewer errors. Budinger earned the only two blocks of the second set.

“We tried to focus on ourselves knowing that it was going to be a really tough battle and try to implement the system that got us here,” Budinger said. “Try to do it at a high level. Try to be as consistent as possible. Unfortunately, their experience dominated us in that aspect and they just are a really good team and they know how to play at this level. They know how to finish matches and finish sets and it definitely showed up there.”

After a block gave Mol/Sørum a 10-7 lead in the first set, the U.S. scored three consecutive points to even the score. A Budinger block cut the lead to two before Evans came up a strong serve and kill to cut the deficit to one point. A Norwegian hitting error made it 10-10. Back-to-back blocks by Mol gave Norway a 13-10 advantage and set up a U.S. timeout.

The U.S. was within two points as late as 15-13 on an Evans attack that crawled on the net and fell on the Norwegian side, but Mol/Sørum scored five of the next six points to reach set point. Evans/Budinger held off two set points before a Norway kill. Evans finished with eight kills and Budinger added five points on three kills and two blocks. The U.S. could not overcome six Mol blocks.

Evans/Budinger jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the second set, but Mol/Sørum responded with four consecutive points with an ace making it 5-3. A great dig and kill by Evans off a touch appeared to pull the U.S. back within two points, 8-6, but Norway successfully challenged that there was no touch.

An ace gave Norway their biggest advantage of the set, five points at 12-7, to force a U.S. timeout. At that point in the match, the teams were even with 15 kills, but Norway had all four aces, three more blocks and three fewer errors. The teams played nearly even the rest of the set. Budinger scored seven points on five kills and two blocks, and Evans added four kills and four digs.

Now at the conclusion of their run, Evans believes his Olympic experience has prepared him to face any competitive atmosphere.

“For me, one of the biggest takeaways is trying to keep your mental not too high and not too low,” Evans said. “I got so much experience from this tournament. I’m going to go into my next tournaments super confident and being able to handle crowds and whatever outside stuff. This is by far the most stressful thing I have ever been a part of, but it is also the best thing I have ever been a part of.”