Champions crowned as pro beach volleyball tour kicks off season in Atlanta
The teams of Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth and Casey Patterson and Chase Budinger won the women’s and men’s Atlanta Open in the opening stop on the 2021 Association of Volleyball Professionals tour on Sunday.
The professional beach volleyball organization kicked off its season with a weekend-long event in Atlanta with 900 tons of sand within the courts at Atlantic Station.
The team of Nuss and Kloth, from LSU, were qualifiers and first-time AVP participants. They defeated Kelly Claes and Sarah Sponcil, who just competed in the Tokyo Olympics, in three sets (21-12, 19-21, 16-14) the finals. In their march to the title, Nuss and Kloth defeated Terese Cannon and Molly Turner in three sets (21-13, 19-21-16-5) in the semifinals.
Patterson, an Olympian and tour veteran, teamed with Budinger, the former NBA player, to come from a set down to defeat Chaim Schalk and Theo Brunner in three sets (14-21, 21-16, 15-13) in the final. Patterson and Budinger defeated Olympians Jake Gibb and Taylor Crabb in two sets (21-19, 21-17) in the semifinals.
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