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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Dec. 5 , 2023) – Get set for a big week across the beach volleyball landscape. In this latest beach update, we preview the 2023 BPT Finals in Doha featuring the top ranked U.S. teams. NORCECA San Salvador also begins this week, and we recap the results from Challenge Nuvali last week.
BPT Finals
The grand finale to the 2023 Beach Pro Tour season has arrived. The BPT Finals run Dec. 6-9 in Doha, Qatar.
The U.S. will have top women’s pairs Kelly Cheng/Sara Hughes and Taryn Kloth/Kristen Nuss competing. The men’s bracket will feature Andy Benesh/Miles Partain. The United States and Brazil are the only countries with three teams in the tournament.
This is the second year of the BPT Finals. Cheng and Hughes won the women’s event in 2022 just three months after reuniting as a pair. They defeated Ana Patricia/Duda (BRA) who were then world champions.
Matches are available to stream with a subscription to VolleyballWorldTV.
Challenge Nuvali, Philippines
The three U.S. pairs competing at Challenge Nuvali in the Philippines all finished tied for fifth at the final BPT Challenge event of the season.
On the final day of competition, Terese Cannon/Megan Kraft went 1-1, defeating Vergé-Dépré/Mäder (SUI) 2-1 in their final pool match and falling to Anastasjia/Tina (LAT) 2-0 in the quarterfinals.
Teegan Van Gunst/Kim Hildreth had a 2-1 win over Ahtiainen/Lahti (FIN) before a 2-0 loss to Tainá/Victoria (BRA) in the quarterfinals.
Chase Budinger/Miles Evans had a 2-0 win over Elazar/Cuzmiciov (ISR) to close out the main draw pools and then suffered a 2-0 loss to Bello/Bello (ENG) in the quarterfinals.
NORCECA San Salvador
NORCECA San Salvador will run Dec. 8-10. After this, there are only two more events on the NORCECA beach calendar.
Molly Turner and Deahna Kraft will represent the U.S. in the women’s event. Charlie Siragusa/Zephyr Dew and Jordan Hoppe/James Shaw will be the U.S. men’s pairs.
Rankings
The latest FIVB world and provisional Olympic rankings before the World Tour Finals have some slight changes from the final look in November.
Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss are in sole possession of world No. 2 heading into Doha with 8,140 points. World champions Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes are No. 3 overall in the women’s world rankings with 7,840 points and one fewer tournament played. Both pairs are behind Ana Patricia/Duda (BRA) who are No. 1 with 9,540 points.
Provisional Olympic rankings have Kloth/Nuss with 10, 260 points and 12 tournaments played, sharing the first position with Ana Patricia/Duda. Carol/Barbara (BRA) are No. 2 with 9, 640 points. Cheng/Hughes are in the provisional Olympic No. 3 spot with 9,040 points in 11 events, as well as the W designating a quota place obtained for winning the 2023 World Championship.
Provisional Olympic qualification is determined from the points earned in a teams 12 best event finishes. So once a team has played 12 events, it can replace poor event finishes with better results.
Julia Scoles and Betsi Flint are world No. 14 with 6,200 points. They are tied for No. 8 in provisional Olympic rankings with 6,740 points in 11 events.
In the men’s rankings, Miles Partain and Andy Benesh are world No. 4 with 6,900 points. Anders Mol/Christian Sorum (NOR) remain world No. 1 with 8,860 points. David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig (SWE) are No. 2 with 8460 points.
Partain/Benesh are in a three-way tie for ninth in the provisional Olympic rankings with 6,900 points on eight tournaments played.
Trevor Crabb and Theo Brunner are world No. 16 with 5,400 points. They are one of the teams tied with Partain/Benesh in the provisional Olympic rankings, also claiming the No. 9 position with 6,920 points in 12 events.
Miles Evans/Chase Budinger are at No. 20 in the world rankings. Evans/Budinger are tied for No. 10 in the provisional Olympic rankings with 6,480 points in 13 events.
Tri Bourne and Chaim Schalk remain inside the top 25 world rankings at No. 24 with 4,760 points. They are now tied for the No. 13 spot in the provisional Olympic rankings with 6,080 points in 14 events.
Current World Rankings – Women
The final beach update of November recaps the last Elite 16 event of the season before the finals in Qatar. We preview the challenge event in the Philippines this weekend where several U.S. teams are prepared to hit the sand, and we check in on the latest Olympic rankings.
This edition of the beach update reviews the results of Challenge Chiang Mai in Thailand that saw the U.S. earn more hardware at a Beach Pro Tour event. We also look ahead to the Jao Pessoa Elite 16 and the Geelong Future which are both set to begin on Wednesday.
In this week's beach update, we look to BPT Challenge Chiang Mai that will feature several U.S. Beach National Teams. This comes after U.S. pairs competed in NORCECA Playoff 4 in in Manhattan Beach this past weekend to earn Olympic points. We also have results from the U.S. pairs who were competing at the U21 Beach World Championships, and we check in on the most current Olympic rankings.
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