Reigning world champion Sara Hughes will return to beach volleyball action after her long injury-prompted absence with a new partner. The 30-year-old American defender has teamed up with professional volleyball player Ally Batenhorst, who is giving up her indoor career, so that the newly formed duo gets off on a quest for Los Angeles 2028 Olympic qualification, as they revealed to NBC.

In partnership with Kelly Cheng, Sara Hughes triumphed at the 2023 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship in Mexico. In that year, they were also the number two team in the women’s FIVB World Ranking for 21 straight weeks. Together, Hughes & Cheng picked up five golds, one silver and one bronze on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour, including the title at the 2022 Tour Finals. Eventually, they competed at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, where they reached the quarterfinals. After Paris, Hughes & Cheng appeared together at a couple of stops on USA’s AVP Tour to finish the 2024 season.

In January of this year, Hughes sustained an injury and had to undergo an Achilles tendon surgery, which pulled the brakes on her new season. Since then, Cheng has moved on to partner with Molly Shaw, while Hughes’ return to the Beach Pro Tour is yet to happen. She is back on the sand practicing, and says her recovery is going really well. She hopes to make her competitive debut with Batenhorst this fall.

Following her promising career in high-school and collegiate indoor volleyball, 22-year-old Ally Batenhorst was a rising star of Omaha Supernovas competing in USA’s Pro Volleyball Federation. She never played beach volleyball professionally, but she played both indoor and beach volleyball at the University of Nebraska, finishing with a 39-28 career record on the sand.

“I would say it's like a completely different sport. You have to learn little things like wind, and you're outside, and it's only two of you, so little things like that are an adjustment for sure. But at the end of the day, it’s volleyball,” Batenhorst told NBC. “Right away the communication was so easy. It's hard to find that right away within a beach volleyball partnership.”

“She has such athleticism. She looks like a true leader on the court. She's very passionate, and I thought all those would translate to the beach,” Hughs said about 1.96m-tall Batenhorst. “In the beach game, everyone's getting a little bit taller. In order to progress with the game and keep at the highest level, you might as well get a tall blocker up there. She's such a good blocker and I love playing defense behind her. It’s really fun. We want to be the hardest working team and we will be the hardest working team. Things are moving quickly, so just staying patient with the process. Maybe a cute little fan will figure out a nickname for us. We’re also going to establish a handshake. I hope our competitors know that we want to be on the top of the podium.”

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