What USA pairs need to do to break pool

TLAXCALA, MEXICO — Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes didn’t need to be in Tlaxcala on Sunday afternoon. Didn’t need to take the 30-minute Uber from Apizaco, where their pool — Pool C — is competing. But a change of scenery is nice. So there they were, enjoying what is, to them, a day off, meaning some fun games of no jump, a little pass and set. Messing around with some jump-sets and shoot sets and jump-shoots. Lots of laughs. Smiles.

Morale, it was not difficult to see, is high in the Cheng-Hughes camp.

Make no mistake, however, the laid-back nature of their field trip to Tlaxcala was earned, not given.

They opened pool play of the Beach Volleyball World Championships with a pair of beatings, first to Mexico’s Esperanza Albarran and Yeray Vidaurrazaga (21-4, 21-10), then to Germans Karla Borger and Sandra Ittlinger (21-17, 21-12). Regardless of what happens during Monday’s 9 p.m. nightcap against Brazil’s Agatha and Rebecca, they are almost assured the top spot in pool, and guaranteed, at the minimum, the second seed.

The difference between coming out first or second is minimal, as the one and the two from every pool begin playoffs in the same position, seeded directly into Wednesday’s round of 32 single-elimination playoffs.

Not that you should inform Cheng of this, or her position as the more than likely No. 1 seed in their pool.

“To me, if we lose, my mindset is there’s still a chance we still might not break pool,” she said after the 45-minute practice in Tlaxcala.

So no, they will not be taking Agatha and Rebecca lightly, or using it as practice reps or a fine-tuning match for the critical playoff rounds to come. They will be looking to pour it on as they did in matches one and two.

“We’ve really just been taking it one match at a time,” Hughes added.

Their position is an enviable one, and one that is matched by fellow Americans Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth, whose pool is based in Humantla, and Betsi Flint and Julia Scoles, based in Tlaxcala. All three teams have won without dropping a set. Only one team has managed to score 19 against the triumvirate of Americans. All three are guaranteed to move on, regardless of what happens when Nuss and Kloth play Brazil’s Andressa and Victoria on Monday afternoon and when Flint and Scoles meet Italians Marta Menegatti and Valentina Gottardi at 3:30.

While the women still have one match remaining, three of the four USA men’s teams are finished pool play….