Kelly Cheng
6-2
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (October 8, 2021) – Good news for American beach volleyball fans: both Kelly Claes/Sarah Sponcil and Alix Klineman/April Ross made the playoffs at the FIVB World Tour Finals Friday.
The bad news? They’ll play each other in the quarterfinals.
That match will take place Saturday, October 9 at 6:30 a.m. Pacific in Cagliari, Italy. It’ll be the second match between the pairs this year; Claes/Sponcil beat Klineman/Ross in May en route to a tournament championship in Sochi, Russia.
Claes/Sponcil advanced to the World Tour Finals playoffs as the No. 3 seed in Pool B. The duo entered Friday 2-0 but lost close 2-1 decisions to both Agatha Bednarczuk/Eduarda Santos Lisboa of Brazil and Sarah Pavan/Melissa Humana-Paredes of Canada, the pool’s No. 2 and 1 seeds, respectively. Team Slaes ended pool play with a 2-2 record and six points.
Klineman/Ross, meanwhile, finished second in Pool A. They didn’t play Friday – their final pool play match was Thursday – but still advanced via a three-way tie for second with Julia Sude/Karla Borger of Germany and Tanja Huberli/Nina Betschart of Switzerland. The Americans won the tiebreaker by holding a higher point ratio in matches among the three teams. Borger/Sude took third in the pool while the Swiss pair was eliminated.
The winner of Klineman/Ross vs. Sponcil/Claes will play Pavan/Melissa in the semifinals. Borger/Sude will play Agatha/Duda in the other quarterfinal, the winner of which will face Russia’s Nadezda Makroguzova/Svetlana Kholomina.
The U.S. is searching for its first women’s medal at the World Tour Finals, and the winner of the American quarterfinal contest will have a chance to play for at least bronze.
On the men’s side, Jake Gibb/Taylor Crabb finished fourth in Pool A with a 1-3 record and five points. They too wrapped up pool play Thursday, losing to Paolo Nicolai/Daniele Lupo of Italy. It was the last match of Gibb’s career as the 45-year-old is retiring from professional volleyball.
Nicolai/Lupo, Ondrej Perusic/David Schweiner (Czech Republic), Steven van de Velde/Christiaan Varenhorst (Netherlands) Anders Mol/Christian Sorum (Norway), Alex Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen (Netherlands) and Cherif Younousse/Ahmed Tijan (Qatar) all advanced out of pool play.
Every match of the World Tour Finals will be streamed on Beach Volleyball World’s YouTube channel.
Related Athletes
World Tour Finals Stories
Gibb’s Career Ends at World Tour Finals
Jake Gibb played the final match of his career as he and Taylor Crabb lost to Italy's Paolo Nicolai/Daniele Lupo Thursday at the FIVB World Tour Finals in Cagliari, Italy.
Mixed Results on Day One of World Tour Finals
Three American teams combined for a 2-3 record on day one of the FIVB World Tour Finals Wednesday. Kelly Claes and Sarah Sponcil went 1-0 and are second in their pool, while Jake Gibb and Taylor Crabb went 1-1.
Three U.S. Pairs Take on Stacked World Tour Finals Field
Three U.S. Beach National Team pairs - Klineman/Ross, Claes/Sponcil and Gibb/Crabb - will compete at the FIVB World Tour Finals October 6-10 in Cagliari, Italy. It will be Gibb's final international tournament.