Chase Budinger and Miles Evans joined forces to form a new beach volleyball tandem on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour and possibly make a run towards the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The American pair have already signed up to make their Beach Pro Tour debut at the Tepic, Mexico Elite16 event from March 22 through 26.

• Watch the 2023 Beach Pro Tour season on VBTV.

34-year-old blocker and former NBA basketball star Chase Budinger has been playing international beach volleyball since 2018, starting off with Sean Rosenthal as a partner and then playing alongside Casey Patterson, Chaim Schalk and, most recently, Troy Field.

Budinger & Field earned a silver medal at the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Rubavu two-star event in 2021 and another silver at last October’s Beach Pro Tour Maldives Challenge tournament. The 2.01m-tall Budinger has also been playing on USA’s strong domestic ATP Tour since 2018 and has so far claimed 15 podiums, three of which decorated in gold.

Whenever Budinger played against Miles Evans on the ATP Tour or internationally, he emerged on the winning end, except for the last time they met at the Manhattan Beach Open in August, when the 33-year-old defender and his previous partner Andy Benesh knocked Budinger & Field out of contention.

1.93m-tall Evans started competing on the World Tour in 2017, winning two medals (a silver and a bronze) with William Kolinske and two medals (a gold and a silver) with Troy Field. He appeared on the 2022 Beach Pro Tour with several different partners, winning Futures silver medals with Andrew Benesh in Songkhla and with Logan Webber in Rhodes. Most recently, Evans finished fourth at December’s Torquay Elite16 with Paul Lotman.

Evans has also picked up plenty of hardware on the AVP Tour (two gold, one silver and two bronze medals) and on the NORCECA continental circuit (one gold, one silver and two bronze medals).

Stay tuned to see how this latest pairing performs when they debut at Tepic, Mexico for the 2nd stop of the Elite 16.

Quick links:
Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour 2023
VBTV
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
YouTube