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The U.S. has suffered an unexpected heartbreaker on the Paris sand.
U.S. beach volleyball world champions Sara Hughes and Kelly Cheng were defeated in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower on Tuesday night (21-18, 21-19) by Switzerland’s Tanja Huberli and Nina Brunner in an early quarterfinal exit.
The defeat marks the first time the U.S. has missed the podium in women’s beach volleyball in 24 years, since the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Hughes and Cheng were the country’s sole hope after the other American duo of Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth fell in the Round of 16 against Canada on Monday.
“All the emotions,” Hughes said after the loss, per USA Today. “Grateful to be here, let down that we didn’t come out with a win, but also proud of the fight that we gave, but I feel like we also have so much left in the tank and so much more to give, so, you know, sometimes in sports it just doesn’t go your way.”
The duo got out to a 4-0 start in Paris, but quickly found themselves behind 14-10 in the first set and were unable to come back.
Hughes and Cheng led early in both sets, but it wasn’t enough to hold off the Swiss.
“We fought back so hard in the first,” Cheng said. “I think I made a few too many errors early on in the first but gosh we came back and just one or two aces and the game’s over.
“And I think similarly to the second, I whiffed two balls out and an ace down the middle again and the game’s gone. So it’s tough. They had their foot on the gas the whole time, and maybe we let up a bit too much, not intentionally but you know it happens. Wish we could have got a few more aces too.”
Hughes and Cheng have been a dominant pair since college, where they led Southern California to the NCAA beach volleyball championship in 2016 and 2017.
In 2016, they had a dominant undefeated 36-0 season.
The Paris Olympics were the first time they matched up to play together again after splitting to play with different partners in the 2021 Tokyo Games.
They came back to one another in 2022 and eventually won the 2023 World Championship over Brazil.
2024 PARIS OLYMPICS
“It’s been so meaningful,” Hughes said. “To see how much it’s growing and to see all the young girls loving to play beach volleyball is really special. And we try to be those people, those mentors, those idols for them so that they can grow up wanting to pursue beach volleyball like we are, so it is really special and we’ll just keep fighting to keep showing them they can pursue their dreams.”
The pair, who first played together as professionals in 2017, will get to play at home for the next Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.
“I can’t wait for that,” Hughes said.
