Santa Barbara’s Miles Evans and partner Chase Budinger faced the unenviable task of playing against the top team from the host country in their Olympics beach volleyball debut Monday before a full house at the Eiffel Tower Stadium in Paris.
Evans/Budinger weren’t fazed by all the noise and support for the French duo of Youssef Krou and Arnaud Gauthier-Rat. They passed well, controlled the net and played good defense in scoring a 21-14, 21-11 victory in Group F competition.
The win snapped a three-match losing streak the Americans had against the French.
Evans/Budinger jumped out to a 10-4 lead in the first set and played steady throughout the match. Evans, who played volleyball at Dos Pueblos High, SBCC and UC Santa Barbara, posted eight attack points and collected six digs in the first set. He had 13 kills for the match.
“It’s one of the best starts we could imagine,” Evans, 34, told the international volleyball federation (FIVB ) afterward. “I had all these bad scenarios in my head going into this match. I am super thankful we were able to overcome that. We came out strong and it looked like we were a little more composed than they were. I think our game plan went our way and our coach, Chase and I executed it in a great way. I thought we passed really well and handled a lot of the nerves.”
The French picked up their game in the second set, but Evans/Budinger reclaimed the momentum and went on a 4-0 run to take a 12-6 advantage.
Budinger took over at the net with his blocking. The former NBA player racked up four stuffs and served three aces.
Next up for Evans/Budinger is a Tuesday match (11.15 a.m. live on E channel) against Stefan Boermans/Yorick de Groot of the Netherlands, the No. 1 team in the group and the tournament’s seventh seed. The Dutch pair won their opener over Spain’s Adrian Gavira/Pablo Herrera, 21-15, 21-15.
Evans is the fourth homegrown beach volleyball player to play in the Olympics, joining Karch Kiraly (1996), Dax Holdren (2004) and Todd Rogers (2008, 2012). Kiraly and Rogers won gold medals.
