Nuss & Brasher produce comeback semifinal win

to qualify for their first World Championship final

ADELAIDE, Australia, November 22, 2025.- USA’s Kristen Nuss & Taryn Brasher will face Latvia’s Tina Graudina & Anastasija Samoilova in Sunday’s final of the women’s FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship in Adelaide.

In the second semifinal on Saturday in Australia, the third-seeded Americans defeated second-seeded Carol Solberg & Rebecca Cavalcanti, who will get to battle for their spot on the podium in an all-Brazilian bronze medal playoff against top-seeded Thamela Coradello & Victoria Lopes.

Watch the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships on VBTV

Nus & Brasher mounted a solid comeback from a set down in their semifinal against Carol & Rebecca to earn a 2-1 (19-21, 24-22, 15-6) victory and qualify for their first World Championship final.

For most of the first set, Carol & Rebecca maintained a slight lead, capitalizing on some great serving and four aces. The gap went as wide as four points at 19-15, but a couple of break points from the Americans brought it down to two at the end of the set, which came with a well-placed elegant shot by Rebecca for the set winner. Nuss & Brasher stormed the second set on a 4-0 run and kept pace to extend it to 20-14 at set point. In an incredible turn of events, the Brazilians scored six in a row to push the set to overtime and provide for a nail-biting ending. After two more set points denied, the Americans finally closed the set to level the match and prompt a tie-breaker. Nuss & Brasher ran off with a 4-1 lead early into the third set and never looked back. They made that deciding set completely one-sided to win emphatically and celebrate their spot in Sunday’s final.

The unforced errors made the big difference in this match. The North Americans made only five of those against as many as 23 from the South Americans. Brasher led the US duo with a team-high 19 points, including four kill blocks and an ace, while Nuss added another 16 points, all in swings. With so few mistakes from their opponents, the Brazilians were made to work for their points and both of them reached 20+, outscoring Nuss & Brasher. With five aces and two kill blocks to her name, Carol topped the chart with a total of 23 points. Rebecca delivered two aces towards a 21-point match tally.

“Oh, my goodness! So much goes into it! A huge credit to our entire USA support staff this entire week! Also, huge shoutout to Drew Hamilton, our coach back at home! We’d not be here without him and I hope he’s ready for some Waffle House, when we get back home,” Nuss told VBTV after the end of the game.

“Australia means so much to us. It was the first time that we got the opportunity to play together internationally, and it was so important to both of us. It’s probably one of my favorite memories,” added Brasher, referring to their 2022 Coolangatta Futures gold upon their Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour debut.

The women’s gold medal match in Adelaide on Sunday will serve off at 20:00 local time (09:30 UTC). It will be the first World Championship final for both Nuss & Brasher and Tina & Anastasija. The American pair, however, has already been on a World Championship podium, at the previous edition Tlaxcala 2023, when they claimed bronze. The two teams have met six times on the Beach Pro Tour, four of them at the Gstaad Elite16 – once in 2022, twice in 2024 and once in 2025. They also met at the 2022 Beach Pro Tour Finals in Doha and at the 2023 Ostrava Elite16. Nuss & Brasher won the last five of these encounters in straight sets, while Tina & Anastasija beat the Americans in three sets in a Gstaad 2022 quarterfinal.

Earlier on Sunday, the all-Brazilian bronze medal game will start at 16:00 (05:30 UTC) and will feature the number one and the number two teams in the FIVB World Ranking, battling for their first World Championship podium. The two teams traded victories the previous two times they met internationally, on the Beach Pro Tour. Thamela & Victoria shut out Carol & Rebecca in August’s Hamburg Elite quarterfinals. In September’s Rio de Janeiro Elite final, Carol & Rebecca got back at Thamela & Victoria with a three-set victory.

FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships: schedule and results