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Chase Budinger and Miles Evans move on.
The American duo eliminated Australians Zachery Schubert and Thomas Hodges in their Lucky Loser Match on Saturday night and officially secured their spot in the knockout round of the Paris Olympics. Budinger and Evans won their match 21-19, 21-17 in straight sets to advance to the round of 16 and keep their medal hopes alive.
Budinger and Evans are the second American men’s duo to reach the knockout round, following Miles Partain and Andy Benesh. The four are attempting to become the first American men to win a medal in beach volleyball since the 2008 Games in China.
“I think we got back to what got us here, which is getting the ball, finding our serves and making our serves, and that’s what we focused on,” Budinger said on USA Network after the win. “We were very focused throughout the match and that allowed us to be more free.”
Budinger, who played basketball at Arizona before a seven-year NBA career, and Evans fell to Spaniards Pablo Herrera and Adrian Gavira in straight sets on Friday and fell to 1-2 in the group stage. That sent the American duo to Saturday’s playoff game against Australia. Schubert and Hodges also finished third in the Group C standings with a 1-2 record.
Australia took a lead in the first set and looked to be one step ahead. Schubert and Hodges held a two-point lead for much of the match and looked set to take advantage early on. However, Budinger finally stepped up. She skillfully blocked a pair of shots at the net to tie the match at 18-18, then blocked two in a row on the same point to put the U.S. ahead for the first time since the opening point of the night.
Then, after a timeout, Budinger came back and put it in the net for her third straight point. They couldn’t close out the match right away, but Evans won the second set point with a big closeout to give the Americans the early lead with a 21-19 win. That capped a 5-1 run, which completely turned the match around down the stretch.
That run carried over into the break and extended to a 19-13 lead for the Americans, which gave them a three-point advantage midway through the second game. Although Australia held on for a bit, Evans and Budinger held on for the rest of the match. Evans even managed to save what should have been an Australian point and put them ahead 19-15, allowing them to quickly wrap up the straight-sets victory.
Partain and Benesh will face Italians Paolo Nicolai and Samuele Cottafava in their round of 16 match on Monday. Budinger and Evans will face either Norwegians Anders Mol and Christian Sorum or Qataris Ahmed Tijan and Cherif Younousse on Monday.