Men’s Volleyball | July 10, 2023
GSTAAD, Switzerland – USC men’s volleyball alum Andy Benesh (Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.) and partner Miles Partain went 6-0 to claim gold medals at the Beach Volleyball World Pro Tour Elite 16 event at Gstaadion on Sunday, July 9.
The victory is the second time Benesh has ascended the top of the podium on the world tour. He and Partain also won the 2022 Dubai 1st Challenge last October. Domestically, Benesh-Partain won the AVP Huntington Beach Open in May of this year.
As the ninth seed in the tournament, Benesh and Partain opened the weekend with a bang on a 19-21, 24-22, 15-12 victory over the world’s No. 1-ranked duo of Anders Mol and Christian Sorum of Norway. They then rolled through two straight-set wins to complete pool play with a 3-0 mark. First, Benesh-Partain defeated Czech Republic’s Thomas Semerad and Jakub Sepka, 21-11, 21-10, in dominant fashion. Then they earned a 21-11, 21-19 win over Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen of the Netherlands.
In the quarterfinals, Benesh and Partain continued to roll and took down Brazil’s 11th-seeded Pedro Solberg and Gustavo Carvalhaes, 21-19, 21-13. They got a 21-14, 21-15 result over the seventh-seeded pair of George Wanderley and Andre Loyola from Brazil in the semifinal to set up a rematch with Mol-Sorum in the championship match. In their only other three-set resuklt, Benesh-Partain completed their run with a 15-21, 21-11, 18-16 win over Mol and Sorum to claim gold.
On the women’s side, USC beach volleyball All-Americans Kelly Cheng (Fullerton, Calif.) and Sara Hughes (Costa Mesa, Calif.) finished in second place at the same event. Trojan All-Americans Julia Scoles (Mooresville, N.C.) and Tina Graudina (Jurmala, Latvia) each reached the round of 12 with partners Betsi Flint and Anastasija Samoilova, respectively. All-American Terese Cannon (Pittsford, N.Y.) did not reach the knockout stages of the tournament with partner Sarah Sponcil.
The 12th-ranked USC men’s volleyball team concluded the 2023 season with a 10-16 overall record and went 3-9 in MPSF matches to finish in sixth place. USC faced…
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