Beach National Team Hits Gstaad 4-star

Country Quota Results

Allie Wheeler/Corinne Quiggle have advanced through the U.S. country quota and will compete in Tuesday’s qualification round. In the first round of Country Quota matches, Wheeler/Quiggle rallied from a first-set defeat to beat Terese Cannon/Kelly Reeves, 2-1 (19-21, 21-19, 15-11). They then swept Delaney Knudsen/Brooke Sweat, 2-0 (21-19, 21-13) for the qualification berth.

Having already won medals at two one-star events this year, this is the duo’s first experience advancing through a four-star event’s country quota. Wheeler/Quiggle will face Canadian pair Amanda Harnett/Alina Dormann in the first round of qualification on Tuesday, July 6.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (July 5, 2021) – After a few weeks off, members of the U.S. Beach National Team will take to the sand once more for a four-star event in Gstaad, Switzerland on July 6-11.

The event will be a final Olympic tune-up

for Kelly Claes/Sarah Sponcil, who earned a berth after winning the last two four-star tournaments a month ago. The Opening Ceremony for the Tokyo Olympic Games 2020 are Friday, July 23, and the beach volleyball tournament will begin the day after.

Joining Claes/Sponcil in Gstaad’s main draw will be Kelley Kolinske/Emily Stockman and Emily Day/Sara Hughes. This will be Day/Hughes’ first main draw of 2021 after competing in the country quota for their first five tournaments of the year.

Three women’s teams will take part in the country quota for the U.S. Terese Cannon/Kelly Reeves will face Allie Wheeler/Corinne Quiggle in the first round, and the winner of that match will play Delaney Knudsen/Brooke Sweat for a spot in the tournament’s qualifier. That second round of the country quota will be Knudsen/Sweat’s first competitive match together.

Four men’s teams will hit the sand in Gstaad. Tri Bourne/Trevor Crabb will begin play in the main draw, while Chase Budinger/Casey Patterson, Theo Brunner/Chaim Schalk and Miles Evans/Bill Kolinske will each take part in the qualifier. This will be Budinger/Patterson’s second FIVB tournament of the year – the two also played in Doha in March – while Bourne/Crabb and Brunner/Schalk have competed in all six four-star events. Evans/Kolinske have played in four.

Claes/Sponcil will get a good test before Tokyo as seven of the top 10 pairs in the world will compete in Gstaad. The young American duo themselves are included in that number; their consecutive gold medals have pushed them up to fifth in the world rankings.

On the men’s side, half of the world’s top 10 will compete, including No. 1 Anders Mol/Christian Sorum of Norway. Qatar’s Cherif Younousse/Ahmed Tijan, who are tied for second, are also in the Gstaad field.

Country quota matches at the Gstaad four-star will take place Monday, July 5. Qualification occurs Tuesday, July 6, and the main draw begins one day later.

Matches will be live streamed on the FIVB YouTube Channel.