Lauren Carlini goes over on two against France/Volleyball World photo The USA women opened the third round of Volleyball Nations League with a 25-15, 26-24, 25-20 victory over France. It left them 5-4 with Tuesday off before playing the Netherlands, also 5-4, on Wednesday night in Fukuoka, Japan. Jordan Thompson had 17 of the Americans’ 46 kills to go with two aces and a solo block. She hit .370. Chiaka Ogbogu had seven kills, a block and an ace. Jordan Larson had five kills and three aces and the other outside, Kelsey Cook, had six kills in her 2024 VNL debut. Dana Rettke had four kills and a ..read more

The USA contingent on the Ostrava podium/Volleyball World photo There was a word that once could have described Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes: boring. They were fun to watch, of course, with their tempo sets and options and creativity. But so good were they throughout the 2023 Beach Pro Tour season that there was little sense in paying much attention to them in the early rounds of Elite16s. Those pool play matches were mostly devoid of tension. There was no clenching of the fists or holding of the breath. The feeling one had when watching Cheng and Hughes was reminiscent of Phil Dalhausser and T ..read more

Miles Partain, left, and Andy Benesh strike a familiar pose/Volleyball World photo On April 26, Andy Benesh and Miles Partain hosted Italians Sam Cottafava and Paolo Nicolai for an exhibition match at Wave Beach, the San Diego-based facility that serves as their training center. For the first time of their careers, Benesh and Partain beat the Italians. Benesh was, he said later with an exhale, just glad they didn’t get blown out again. In their previous two meetings with Cottafava and Nicolai, in Paris and Doha, both in 2023, they hadn’t scored more than 17. But the win, relieving as it may ha ..read more

Serbia’s Marko Ivovic hits against the USA triple block of, from left, TJ DeFalco, Garrett Muagututia and Thomas Jaeschke/Volleyball World photo Thomas Jaeschke had 17 kills and an ace and the USA men bounced back with a 23-25, 25-15, 25-23, 25-14 victory ove Serbia  Friday at Vollyball Nations League. The Americans finish the second round by playing the home team, Canada, on Saturday. The USA improved to 3-4, while Canada (3-3) had the day off in the tournament in Ottawa. The Canadians, also qualified for the Paris Olympics, finish their second round Sunday against Serbia. Jaeschke, who ..read more

Joana Mader, left, and Anouk Verge-Depre were left scrambling against the Canadians and out of Olympics contention/Volleyball World photo It’s over. At long last, after 17 months and nearly two dozen tournaments, the first and major leg of the Paris Olympic race is over, the last bid sealed up by Switzerland’s Zoe Verge-Depre and Esmee Bobner. Their ticket was punched in an agonizing manner, watching from the sidelines as Tokyo bronze medalists Anouk Verge-Depre — the older sister of Zoe — and Joana Mader competed at the Ostrava Elite16, after Zoe and Bobner were eliminated in the qualifier by ..read more

Erik Shoji, left, and Garrett Muagututia watch Thomas Jaeschke pass against Italy/Volleyball World photo The USA men got swept by Italy on Thursday in Ottawa, Canada, in Volleyball Nations League. It dropped the team to 2-4 with a match against Serbia (2-3) on Friday at 8 p.m. Eastern. Sebria swept the Netherlands on Wednesday. Italy, strenghtening its effort to win a Paris Olympics bid, won 25-23, 26-24, 25-20 behind 12 kills and three blocks from Daniele Lavia and 10 kills from Alessandro Michieletto. Gianluca Galassi added six kills, three blocks and an ace, and Simone Gianelli had three ki ..read more

USA Volleyball and coach Karch Kiraly announced the 2024 women’s Olympic team roster Wednesday and it includes some of the mainstays from the team that won gold in Tokyo in 2021. It also has new Olympic faces. While some of the slots on the 12-player, one-official alternate roster were all but inevitable, the three biggest questions all along were who would be the four outside hitters, who would be the two setters, and who would be the alternate. The four outsides are Olympic veterans Jordan Larson — now a four-time Olympian — and Kelsey Robinson Cook and first-timers Kathryn Plummer and Aver ..read more

HERMOSA BEACH, California — It sounds awful, to tell you the truth. Eight hours a day in a gym in Beijing, China. A country you’ve never been to, on a contract you signed because it was the lone offer you had. Only American on your team. Not a lick of English spoken. But hey, at least you know your favorite Chinese food is orange chicken! Not that it matters. Most hours of the day, waking and often otherwise, are spent in the sports hall. You eat there. Nap there. Work there. It’s the type of environment that might break a 22-year-old coming off one of the best individual NCAA seasons in the ..read more

USA teammates: Matt Anderson hits against David Smith, left, during action last December/CEV photo As the USA women head back to Anaheim to regroup before revealing its Olympic roster this week and then resuming Volleyball Nations League on June 11, the second round of the men’s competition begins Tuesday. The USA men –with a completely different roster than week one — open play in Ottawa, the capital of Canada, against Argentina, at 4:30 p.m. Eastern. The second round began in Fukuoka, Japan, with Brazil sweeping Germany before Poland beat Bulgaria. Japan was then playing Iran. Later Tuesday ..read more

The race for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games officially began in February 2023 in Doha, Qatar, with the Volleyball World Elite16. The 2024 season began the first week of March back in Doha, and the final event of the Olympic qualification cycle will be the Ostrava Elite16, which ends on June 9. We’ll be providing these updates for the Beach Volleyball Olympic rankings after international points-earning tournaments: Seventeen months and untold airline miles later, it all comes down to this: A single event in a retired steel mill in the Czech Republic. Seven men’s teams and seven women’s teams are ..read more