In a day of disappointments for the United States beach volleyball teams, the bright spot was the advancement of FIVB first timer Alix Klineman and veteran April Ross to Sunday’s gold medal women’s match.
When talking about their journey and how it feels to be in that position, Klineman did not deny her excitement.
“Incredible,” she said. “I didn’t expect to get this far. We just took it one match at a time and believed what was possible and I think we keep growing as a team and it feels really good out there.”
Ross was quick to credit the pair’s coach Jen Kessey for their success thus far and hopes for Sunday’s title match.
“(We will prepare) the same way we have been preparing for every game,” Ross said. “Everyone out here is really good and the Brazilian team is no exception, so we are going to make our coach Jen Kessy watch a ton of film and come up with an amazing game plan again and we will just come out and play as hard as we can.”
Klineman and Ross are in their first tournament together after joining up at the end of November. The DELA Beach Open is Klineman’s first ever professional beach tournament.
The duo’s 8:35 a.m. Sunday gold medal match against Brazil’s Maria Antonelli/Carol Salgado will be streamed live here.
Also included in the video below are explanations from men’s players Miles Evans (partner Bill Kolinske) and Ryan Doherty (partner Billy Allen) on their Saturday efforts.
Evans talked about what went wrong on Saturday and the team’s plans for the future. Doherty spoke of his personal level of play, but also satisfaction with the team’s ninth place finish.
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