UPSET CENTRAL! World Champs Turns Bonkers Into Quarterfinals

Welcome back to SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, where Mewhirter is back on a late-night edition breaking down the 2025 Beach Volleyball World Championships, where Thursday turned positively bonkers. Where to start? How about with...

- France's Arnaud Gauthier-Rat and Teo Rotar shocking medal favorites Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan

- Germany's Nils Ehlers and Clemens Wickler figuring it out at the right time in a critical upset over Norway's Anders Mol and Christian Sorum

- USA Volleyball's Chaim Schalk and James Shaw continuing their Cinderella run with an upset victory over Cuba's Jorge Alayo and Noslen Diaz

But then, of course, there was some sense of normalcy, as:

- Sweden's David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig swept France's Remi Bassereau and Calvin Aye, while countrymen Elmer Andersson and Jacob Holting-Nilsson swept Andre and Renato

- Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson continued their tour de force, as did Brazil's Barbara and Carol and Latvia's Tina Graudina and Anastasija Samoilova

- Kelly Cheng and Molly Shaw left no doubt in a convincing win over the Czech Republic, and the Czech men, Ondrej Perusic and David Schweiner, left no doubt in their win over Portugal's Joao Pedrosa and Hugo Campos

- Kristen Nuss and Taryn Brasher hang on to beat Raisa Schoon and Katja Stam

Close calls were won by...

- Evandro and Arthur, who snuck past Marco Krattiger and Leo Dillier

- Sven Winter and Lukas Pfretzschner, who battled with Hendrik Mol and Mathias Berntsen

- Thamela and Victoria, who slipped past a very talented Ukraine team in Tetiana Lazarenko and Daria Romaniuk

And a huge bummer of an event in Ana Patricia and Duda pulling out to injury.

While it benefited USA Volleyball's Julia Donlin and Lexy Denaburg, it was a massive bummer

SHOOTS!

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