In a bid to return to the Olympic women's beach volleyball podium after failing to medal in Paris last year, Team USA hired three-time Olympic medalist April Ross as the Beach National Teams’ new head of coaching on Monday.
Ross will be responsible for supporting the professional development of all USA beach volleyball national team coaches, with the goal of enhancing training, competition preparedness, and performance prep.
The 42-year-old, who retired from professional play last November, aims to help return the US to the sport's elite echelons following an uncharacteristic 2024 Olympic performance where both USA pairs fell in the tournament's first two knockout rounds.
That Paris podium was the first without a US team since the 2000 Sydney Games.
Despite the uphill climb she faces, Ross is particularly equipped to lead the US contingent, having battled her way to a career-capping gold medal alongside teammate Alix Klineman at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
Prior to earning gold, Ross first made the Olympic podium with teammate Jennifer Kessy at the 2012 London Games, snagging silver behind the USA's three-time gold medalists Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh-Jennings — the latter of whom Ross paired up with to take bronze at the 2016 Rio Games.
"April brings a unique combination of elite-level experience, deep technical knowledge, and a passion for mentoring," said USA Volleyball's director of beach national teams Sean Scott. "She's competed at the highest levels and understands what it takes to succeed."
"She is a true champion," echoed USA Volleyball CEO and president John Speraw. "We are confident that her expertise will continue to elevate US beach volleyball on the global stage, especially as we look ahead to LA 2028."
In perhaps their toughest Olympic task so far, USA Volleyball took down Brazil 3-2 in this morning’s back-and-forth semifinal to advance to Sunday’s gold medal match.
The win guarantees the US a seventh Olympic podium finish and the chance to repeat their Tokyo gold medal win — a feat they accomplished by beating Brazil back in 2021.
A volleyball rivalry with Olympic history
The longtime rival nations have met on the Olympic court many times, including five medal contests over the last eight Olympics.
In those five matches, Brazil walked away with three medals (two gold, one bronze), while Team USA notched one gold and one bronze in two wins.
Team USA ends Brazil's Olympic gold medal hopes
While there wasn’t a medal on the line in this morning's five-set thriller, the teams definitely played like there was. The US struck first, taking the first set before trading the next three with Brazil, who forced the deciding fifth set largely off the outstanding play of star Gabi Guimarães.
But the States shifted into gear in the fifth, downing Brazil 15-11 off a Kathryn Plummer kill to clinch a spot in Sunday's final.
Plummer led the US with 26 points, while fellow outside hitter Avery Skinner and opposite Annie Drews contributed an impressive 19 and 18, respectively.
What's next for USA Volleyball
Today's win might have been the USA’s toughest challenge on their path to back-to-back gold, but to complete the job, they’ll have to take down the winner of today’s Turkey-Italy semifinal.
The volleyball gold medal match will kick off on Sunday at 7 AM ET, with live coverage across NBC networks.
USA Beach Volleyball loses Olympic medal bid
Over on the sand, Team USA’s last hope for a beach volleyball medal vanished in Tuesday’s quarterfinal round, making this the first Summer Olympics without a US team on the podium since 2000.
Last-standing US pair Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes fell in straight sets to Switzerland’s Nina Brunner and Tanja Hüberli, just one day after fellow US duo Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth fell in the round of 16.
It’s a disappointing finish for a national contingent that’s claimed four of the previous five gold medals — most recently by Alix Klineman and April Ross’s Tokyo A-Team.
Three-time beach volleyball gold medalist Kerri Walsh Jennings failed to qualify for her sixth Olympics on Wednesday.
Walsh Jennings and her partner Brooke Sweat lost in a qualifying match in Ostrava, Czech Republic to the Netherlands, meaning that the pair could not overtake fellow Americans Kelly Claes and Sarah Sponcil on the international tour point list.
Walsh Jennings and Sweat would have needed to at least get to the bronze medal match and hope that Claes and Sponcil didn’t reach the semifinals in order to overtake the two.
Two-time Olympic medalist April Ross and partner Alix Klineman have already clinched a spot in Tokyo. With a maximum two team limit for each country, Walsh Jennings and Sweat’s loss means they just missed out on the second spot.
“It’s a terrible, terrible feeling,” Walsh Jennings said after the match. “It’s been a really rough year, and to lose in a qualifier, it feels really hard right now.”