USA’s Hughes/Claes enjoy ‘summer school’ on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour

Long Beach, California, USA, Aug. 26, 2016 – Well, that was not a bad summer internship for Sara Hughes and Kelly Claes of the United States. The Beach Volleyball duo, who just started their senior year at the University of Southern California, broke more ground on their fledgling careers Friday by finishing in ninth place at the ASICS World Series of Beach Volleyball FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam.It’s been quite a year squished into a few months for Hughes, 21, and Claes, 20.. Not only did they reach their first Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP) championship match, but they beat two Olympic teams in their first FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour main draw last month in Klagenfurt, Austria and then reached the round of 16 in Long Beach before falling to the world’s top-ranked team, Talita Antunes and Larissa Franca of Brazil.“This is definitely a very big learning experience,” Hughes said. “We’ve been playing at the collegiate level for so long so it’s hard to know if you can compete at this level and this whole summer both domestically and internationally we’ve learned so much.“Playing three-time Olympians is a surreal experience for us and the first game it was a battle, we were right there with them and the second, they took it to us. Coming off the court, I can’t be mad at that, I can only take it as a good thing.“We …

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