Just when we think Sara Hughes and Kelly Claes couldn't have a better year, they crush yet another personal best. The duo of USC seniors received a wildcard bid into this week's FIVB Klagenfurt Major and immediately proved they deserved to be there. The 20-year-old Claes and 21-year-old Hughes swept tournament No. 1 seeds Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst of Germany and then defeated Rio-bound Canadians Jamie Broder and Kristina Valjas.

This duo burst onto the professional beach volleyball scene last summer by defeating April Ross and Jen Fopma in the semifinals of the AVP New York City Open. A year later, after going undefeated and winning the national championship in their junior NCAA beach volleyball season, the duo returned to the AVP, and took third in New York and second in San Francisco.


In Klagenfurt, only their second senior FIVB World Tour event ever, Claes and Hughes SWEPT one of the favorites to win gold in Rio. Let that sink in for a minute. Ludwig and Walkenhorst have won five medals on the FIVB tour this year; four of them gold. They've finished in the top four in the past four tournaments. And this pair of college beach volleyball players beat them 21-18, 21-19.

Plenty of people have said Claes and Hughes will be the next Kerri and Misty and will represent the USA in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, but with results like these at the ages of 20 and 21, it seems like we will see this duo topping podiums much sooner than Tokyo.