25-year-old Chloe Loreen made her Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour debut in the most impressive of ways. She and her 27-year-old partner Molly Shaw won Friday’s all-American final at the women’s Futures tournament in Pirae Tahiti. Kelly Kool & Tiffany Svenssohn settled for silver, while Erika Nystrom & Alexandra Gusarova of Cyprus completed the podium with bronze.
Third-seeded Shaw & Loreen did not drop a single set in the four matches they played in French Polynesia this week. In the semifinals, they produced a 2-0 (21-14, 21-10) shutout of top-seeded Nystrom & Gusarova, before mastering a 2-0 (21-13, 21-18) sweep of the gold medal showdown against second-seeded Kool & Svenssohn. While Loreen had never played on the Tour before, Shaw had a few previous appearances with different teammates and even earned a full set of medals, one of each colour, in 2022, including a Dubai Challenge silver.
Kool & Svenssohn earned their first international medal (for either of them) also at their very first participation on the Beach Pro Tour as a pair. The American duo also reached the final on an impeccable run of three consecutive straight-set victories, crowned by a 2-0 (21-13, 21-11) win over one of the teams representing France, Eleonore Johansen & Celine Collette.
