HERMOSA BEACH, Calif. — We recorded this episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter just a few days ago … and already it’s out of date. You’ll see why in a few days. But just know this: Seismic changes are coming. And also know this: For all of the listeners who give us grief over not recording episodes to keep up with all of the changes — partner changes, schedule changes, ball changes — this is why. With one episode per week, we can’t keep up, nor do we plan on it.
What we do plan on doing is continue providing the best answers we can, at least once a month, to as many fan questions as we can get to in roughly an hour and a half. And I can provide as much insight to many of the ones we don’t in the write-up below.
Without further ado …
Can you predict new partnerships for the 2023 beach volleyball season?
This is actually a much more straightforward question to answer than either of us would have thought, for there is hardly any crystal ball needed.
The teams we’re seeing now are virtually all the teams we’ll see come 2023. Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes aren’t splitting up. Neither are Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth. Julia Scoles and Betsi Flint have just one tournament together as a team, but that tournament — the Torquay Elite 16 — ended with a silver medal, so I wouldn’t expect to see any changes there. Emily Stockman and Megan Kraft appear locked, as do Corinne Quiggle and Sarah Schermerhorn.
The biggest free agent out there, and the one who will likely begin the trickle down, is Kelley Kolinske. She has no shortage of options, as the United States is home to an embarrassment of riches in terms of elite defenders who aren’t yet locked in for next year: Zana Muno, Hailey Harward, Savvy Simo, Carly Kan, Molly Turner, Katie Horton, Brook Bauer — the list goes on. When Kolinske makes her move, the rest of the defenders can then find their respective blockers, but the top, aside from Kolinske, is mostly settled.
For the men, too, the off-season will be surprisingly quiet.
What a laughable sentence that was to write, which I did just one day ago.
Now? The off-season is about to become a wild ride. Chaim Schalk and Theo Brunner have split. The former has settled on a new partner, which will be announced soon, the latter is now the highest-demand blocker in the United States.
Get your popcorn ready, y’all….
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Volleyballmag.com…