TALLAHASSEE, Florida – The rubric used by Taylor Crabb as he sought a new partner for the 2026 beach volleyball season was a simple one, boiling down to a single question: Who is my best option to win an Olympic medal?

Not just qualify for the Olympics.

He’s done that.

Did it in Tokyo. Made a funny scene in Ostrava, when he and Jake Gibb punched their ticket into the 2021 Games, abruptly hugging it out with his partner in a café, seemingly out of the blue to everyone else in the building. Only they knew, when Tri Bourne and Trevor Crabb lost to Andre Loyola and George Wanderley, that the race was finally over.

It was a tremendous accomplishment then, and it would be a tremendous accomplishment to qualify in 2028, in a men’s field that has only gotten deeper and younger. But Crabb, the five-time AVP Best Defensive Player, isn’t seeking a participation trophy when the Olympic Games is hosted just down the Pacific Coast Highway from his home in Redondo Beach.

He wants the podium.

There was one individual he saw who could help him stand on it: Andy Benesh.

“I wanted to win a medal, and he’s the best option out of anyone,” he said on this week’s episode of SANDCAST. “Everyone was talking to me about what I wanted and qualifying for the Olympics would be cool, but I really don’t care to just qualify for the Olympics. I want to go there and be able to stand on that podium. He was the number one guy.”

Now he has his guy. A text he sent to Benesh this fall begat a lunch at Martha’s which begat the most intriguing new men’s partnership in the USA Volleyball landscape.

There is no doubt they have the pieces and potential to compete with the world’s best. The question asked of every new partnership is: Can they reach that potential?

In 2023, Benesh was the blocking half of a moonshot partnership with Miles Partain, rocketing up the world rankings with consecutive medals in Ostrava (bronze), Gstaad (gold) and Montreal (silver) in three fields of major events featuring the most elite teams. They all but shored up their Olympic bid to Paris then.

But since, Benesh has won just a single international medal, a bronze in Ostrava of 2024. Crabb hasn’t won a medal on the Beach Pro Tour since 2022 – a bronze in the Dubai Challenge with Paul Lotman – and hasn’t made a final since he and Gibb won gold in the Chetumal four-star in 2020.

Such is the biggest question mark: Can they compete with Sweden – both of them – Norway, Qatar, and the Netherlands, among the other elites, and regularly win medals again?

The new partnership, as they tend to go, seems to have reinvigorated both to do just that.

Traveling constantly on the Beach Pro Tour, thrilling adventure though it may be, will take its toll.

Taylor Crabb and his brother, Trevor, acknowledged that traveling internationally hadn’t been a priority since qualifying for Paris finished, and Taylor has only played 10 Beach Pro Tour events in the last three years. Even then, his points are in an excellent position, as he has been wildly efficient in picking his spots. Benesh and Partain also played sparingly, hitting seven tournaments in 2025, highlighted by a fifth in Ostrava in an otherwise forgettable season that was neither good nor bad.

“We were struggling on the court last year partially because of the mental side for both of us,” he said. “I think this new partnership is going to be great for me. I wish nothing but success for Miles in whatever he wants to do.”

Galvanized, Crabb was, as Benesh said, “lights out” at practice the last two days. Benesh is going to be taking trips up the 405 to train with Crabb in Moraga, where he is a coach at St. Mary’s (and where the athletic director offered to make a volunteer position available for Benesh).

They’ll make their debut as a team in the main draw of the Joao Pessoa Elite March 11-15. A medal would be nice — but that’s not the goal.

LA is.

A podium in LA to be specific.

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