Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss already have three Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour gold medals to their names, but the Americans are still looking for their first podium appearance in an Elite16 event and they will have a great chance to do it in Uberlândia on Sunday.

Kloth and Nuss won a pair of matches on Saturday to advance to the semifinals of the tournament played at Praia Clube and will now meet compatriots Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes on Sunday. Brazil’s Eduarda ‘Duda’ Lisboa/Ana Patrícia Ramos and Australia’s Taliqua Clancy/Mariafe Artacho will battle in the other semifinal.

• Watch the Beach Pro Tour Uberlândia Elite16 live or on demand on VBTV.

The winners of last year’s Coolangatta Futures and Kuşadası Challenge and the 2023 La Paz Challenge, Kloth, 26, and Nuss, 25, have a fourth place in Torquay, last December, as their best result in an Elite16 event. The two have at least matched it in Uberlândia after they won two elimination matches on Saturday.

The Americans started the day in the Round of 12, where they eliminated compatriots Terese Cannon and Sarah Sponcil in straight sets (21-14, 21-11). Kloth and Nuss had a big challenge in the quarterfinals, facing the home team of Bárbara Seixas and Carol Salgado, but handled the pressure of the home crowd well to move forward with another two-set (21-18, 21-17) win.

“Playing Brazil in front of this home crowd, it was just fun,” Nuss commented. “We don’t think there was a single person in the stadium that wanted us to win, so we were just cheering one another. The crowd was amazing, we could really tell they were into the game and very engaged. It’s always kind of fun being the underdog, you don’t really have a lot of pressure on you. You can just go there and play your game and that’s what we did.”

In the semifinals, the two will face very familiar opponents in compatriots Cheng and Hughes. The teams have met four times since last December and Kloth and Nuss are yet to overcome their opponents.

“Competing at this level is very hard because everyone is so good,” Kloth added. “It’s always decided because of a point here or a point there. It’s a scramble play or making a good decision at an opportune moment. When it gets to this point, it’s the mental skills that are the difference-makers.”

Beach Pro Tour Uberlândia Elite16 – Match Schedule & Results

In order to make it to the semifinals in Uberlândia, Cheng and Hughes secured their fourth-straight victory in the tournament, downing Swiss Olympians Nina Brunner and Tanja Hüberli in the tie-breaker (15-21, 21-17, 16-14) in the quarterfinals.

Fan favorites Duda and Ana Patrícia also continue on a roll in Uberlândia. The two, who represent Praia Clube and practice at the facility daily, had a strong showing in the quarterfinals, knocking out Tokyo Olympic bronze medallists Joana Mäder and Anouk Vergé-Dépré of Switzerland with an emphatic two-set (21-11, 21-16) victory.

Their semifinal opponents, Tokyo Olympic silver medallists Clancy and Mariafe also had only one match in their schedule on Saturday, dominating Latvians Tina Graudina and Anastasija Samoilova to a straight-set (21-16, 21-14) win in the quarterfinals.

Brazilians and Australians have had five encounters at the international level as of now, with the South Americans leading the series 3-2.

The medal matches of the Uberlândia Elite16 will also be held on Sunday at Praia Clube, with the final scheduled for 15:00 local time (18:00 UTC) and the bronze medal match starting two hours earlier.

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