After a quiet year in which an achilles injury ended her season before it even began, Sara Hughes made a most surprising announcement, telling NBC that she’d selected her new running mate for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games: Ally Batenhorst.
To which many in the beach volleyball world justifiably wondered: Who?
On Thursday, those following the Hermosa Open presented by Wedbush got their first introduction to Batenhorst on the beach, as she and Izzy Martinez, a junior at Cal Poly, qualified with a pair of sweeps to make the weekend’s main draw.
A native of Houston, Batenhorst played both indoor and beach volleyball at Nebraska, graduating and going on to play professionally as an outside hitter for the popular Omaha Supernovas of the Professional Volleyball Federation, which has since become Major League Volleyball. Until Thursday, little was known about Batenhorst on the beach – how she’d be, how she’d play, how she’d deal with the wind and sand and four less people on the court and all of the other finer nuances separating beach and indoor. All there was, really, was a highlight reel put up by the Big 10 Volleyball YouTube Channel.
Thursday was as good a start as any. Her closest set with Martinez on Thursday was 21-18, and they won their two matches by a collective 20 points, coasting into the main draw of her first professional event. They will play No. 1 seed Terese Cannon and Megan Kraft, who finished second a year ago and are coming off a runner-up finish at the Manhattan Beach Open.
Also qualifying for the women were top-seeded Falyn Fonoimoana and Lindsey Sparks, LMU’s Tannon Rosenthal and UCLA’s Harper Cooper, UCLA’s Alexa Fernandez and recent UCLA transfer Ava Williamson, LMU’s Chloe Hooker and Anna Pelloia, Paloma Bowman and Agnieszka Pregowska, Hannah Froling and Amanda Harnett, and Kaley Matthews and Adelina Okazaki.
The men’s side was highlighted by No. 13 seed Ian Satterfield and Colton Cowell upsetting No. 4 Curt Toppel and Mark Burik, 21-9, 21-16, to punch their ticket as the highest men’s seed to qualify. They’re joined by Skylar del Sol and Mike Groselle, Raffe Paulis and Riley Owen, Leor Schiffer and Chris Shaffer, DJ Klasnic and Nate Miller, Jacob LaBouliere and Quin Zilch, USA Volleyball’s U21 stars Blake Goodwin and Ford Harman, and Mark Bucknam and Owen Karleznig.
Friday’s main draw for the $180,000 purse will begin at 9 a.m. Pacific, and streaming can be found here.
For results and live updates of the Hermosa Open
All info is on the Hermosa Open Volleyball Life page.
Check out our preview of Hermosa here.
