Beach Notebook: First-Time Winners in the Netherlands

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (September 24, 2021) – Four U.S. beach volleyball athletes recently won their first international beach tournaments as both Terese Cannon/Delaney Mewhirter and Miles Evans/Troy Field took gold at the Nijmegen 1-star event on the FIVB World Tour Sept. 19.

Evans/Field dominated in the Netherlands, going 5-0 in matches and 10-0 in sets. They allowed just 14.3 points per set on average, and opponents scored more than 17 points in just one frame all weekend. Nijmegen was the duo’s third tournament together after first partnering at the AVP event in Chicago and a 1-star in Italy.

Cannon/Mewhirter also went 5-0 in the Netherlands. They won their pool and downed two teams from Germany and one from Switzerland in the knockout rounds for the gold. It was their first tournament as a partnership.

The gold is Mewhirter’s first FIVB medal. Cannon and Field now have four, and Evans has five.

Nearly Déjà Vu

Three of Nijmegen’s gold medalists were also on the Cervia, Italy, podium one week earlier. Evans/Field took silver in their first international tournament as partners, and Cannon also won silver with Molly Turner.

Evans/Field went 4-1 in the tournament and did not drop a set until the gold medal match. Cannon/Turner came through the qualifier and rebounded from a loss in their final pool play match to finish on the podium. They went 5-2 in Italy.

The podium finish was Turner’s first career international medal.

World Tour Finals Field Set

The FIVB recently confirmed the World Tour Finals field, and Alix Klineman/April Ross, Kelly Claes/Sarah Sponcil and Jake Gibb/Taylor Crabb will represent the U.S. The tournament will take place October 6-10 in Cagliari, Italy, and consist of two pools per gender of five teams each. The top team in each pool advances directly to the semifinals, while the second and third-ranked teams will compete in the quarterfinal round.

The U.S. has won gold once since the tournament’s 2015 inception: Phil Dalhausser/Nick Lucena topped the podium in 2017. The two also took silver in 2015, and Tri Bourne/John Hyden won bronze in 2016. No American women’s team has finished on the podium.

World Tour Finals Pools

Men’s Pool A	Men’s Pool B	Women’s Pool A	Women’s Pool B
Ondrej Perusic/David Schweiner – CZE	Jake Gibb/Taylor Crabb – USA	Alix Klineman/April Ross – USA	Kelly Claes/Sarah Sponcil – USA
Paolo Nicolai/Daniele Lupo – ITA	Adrian Ignacio Carambula Raurich/Enrico Rossi – ITA	Agatha Bednarczuk/Eduarda Santos Lisboa – BRA	Marta Menegatti/Valentina Gottardi – ITA
Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen – NED	Martins Plavins/Edgars Tocs – LAT	Karla Borger/Julia Sude – GER	Nadezda Makroguzova/Svetlana Kholomina – RUS
Anders Mol/Christian Sorum – NOR	Christiaan Varenhorst/Steven Van de Velde – NED	Sanne Keizer/Madelein Meppelink – NED	Anouk Verge-Depre/Joana Heidrich – SUI
Konstantin Semenov/Ilya Leshukov – RUS	Cherif Younousse/Ahmed Tijan – QAT	Nina Betschart/Tanja Huberli – SUI	Sarah Pavan/Melissa Humana-Paredes – CAN

Saying Goodbye

The World Tour Finals will be Gibb’s final international tournament. Gibb, 45, announced his retirement last month at the 2020 Olympic Games. The four-time Olympian has played in 148 FIVB tournaments, winning seven and medaling in 23. Gibb partnered with Sean Rosenthal in more than a third of his international appearances, and the two won 12 World Tour medals and competed at both the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games. Since first teaming up in 2017, Gibb and Crabb have played in 33 international tournaments, winning the 2019 Chetumal 4-star and taking bronze in Doha earlier this year. They also qualified for the 2020 Olympics together.

Gibb is the second high-profile retirement this year from the U.S. Beach National Team. Dalhausser, 41, is also calling it an international career. A four-time Olympian, too, Dalhausser took gold in Beijing 2008. His 38 FIVB gold medals are third-most in history, and he’s finished on an FIVB podium 68 times.

Since 2016, Dalhausser’s paired with long-time friend Lucena. The two Floridians have played in 51 international tournaments, winning nine and medaling in 19. They qualified for the Olympics in both 2016 and 2020.

New Four-star Added to the Schedule

Another four-star tournament was added to the 2021 slate recently. The tournament will take place in Itapema, Brazil, from November 10-14. It will be the eighth four-star this year and first since July. Klineman/Ross are the reigning Itapema champions, having won the women’s division in 2019.