April Ross and Alix Klineman serve up beach volleyball gold at Tokyo Olympics

The U.S. beach volleyball “A Team” of April Ross and Alix Klineman took Olympic gold in their straight sets finals victory over Australia’s Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy. Ross and Klineman won 2-0 (21-15, 21-16). Ross contributed nine total attack points and Klineman finished with ten attack points and two block points. They went on an early 5-0 run to go up 7-2 in the first set and Australia was never able to take a lead through 20 minutes of playtime.

After going down two points to start the second set, Ross and Klineman went on a resurgent 10-0 run. Martacho del Solar and Clancy tried to overtake the lead, closing the gap to 16-13, but the U.S. team prevailed.

This is the first Olympic gold for Ross, who has two additional medals to her name – silver from the 2012 London Olympics with Jennifer Kessy and bronze from the 2016 Rio Olympics with Kerri Walsh Jennings. Klineman, a first-time Olympian, and Ross teamed up at the start of 2018 and were ranked No. 2 in the world entering the Tokyo Olympics. Kessy currently coaches Ross and Klineman.

Read more…