Brittany Hochevar and new partner Kelly Claes got everyone’s attention at the FIVB Xiamen, a four-star event in China, but ultimately the pair lost in Sunday’s title match to Canadians Melissa Humana-Paredes and Sarah Pavan 21-19, 21-14.
The men’s gold medal match was an all-Russian affair as Oleg Stoyankovskiy and Igor Velichko beat countrymen Viacheslav Krasilnikov and Nikita Liamin 21-18, 21-19.
In the women’s bronze match, Mariafe Artacho and Taliqua Clancy of Australia beat Brazilians Agatha Bednarczuk and Eduarda “Duda” Lisboa 21-18, 21-17, while in the men’s third-place match Brazilians Alison Cerutti and Bruno Oscar Schmidt defeated Poland’s Piotr Kantor and Bartosz Losiak 21-15, 21-13.
The next big event for most American pairs is the AVP-FIVB collaboration the first week of May in Huntington Beach, Calif.
