After stopping the most impressive collegiate beach streak to date, Saint Mary’s Lindsey Knudsen and Payton Rund earn this week’s VolleyMob National Beach Pair of the Week.
The #1 pair took down USC’s #1 pair of Sarah Hughes and Kelly Claes in a tight three set battle at the USA Volleyball Collegiate Challenge, ending their 103-match winning streak.
The first set of the match was all USC, as the Trojans took an easy 21-13 win and the 1-0 advantage in the match. The Gaels pair was not ready to give up though, keeping things interesting with a second set victory of 21-18 – making Knudsen and Rund just the third pair this season to take a set from Hughes and Claes.
Knudsen and Rund fought until the very last point to take the 17-15 win over the USC pair, handing the duo their first loss since April 2, 2015 – over two years ago.
We just beat the USC, the #1 team in the nation…. ??? pic.twitter.com/hs9zrpWWYe
— Payton Rund (@PrundJr_6) April 8, 2017
On the day, Knudsen and Rund went 2-1, taking down Loyola Marymount’s Savannah Slattery and Sarah Sponcil in another three set decision 2-1, (22-20, 14-21, 15-9). The duo dropped their first match of that day to Arizona State’s Bianca Arellano and Whitney Follette in straight sets 2-0, (21-16, 21-18).
Earlier in the week, the pair was able to take care of Santa Clara’s Nikki Hess and Allison Kantor in two sets 2-0, (21-11, 21-18) and California’s Jessica Gafney and Mia Merino in straight sets 2-0, (21-11, 21-9).
PREVIOUS VOLLEYMOB BEACH PAIR’S OF THE WEEK
- Stetson’s Lind & Dunn
- Long Beach State’s Nieto & Barber
- St. Mary’s Knudsen & Rund
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