USC Beach Volleyball's Megan Kraft and Terese Cannon Capture NORCECA Gold

JUAN DOLIO, Dominican Republic – Three-time USC beach volleyball All-American Megan Kraft (San Diego, Calif.) and All-American alumna Terese Cannon (Pittsford, N.Y.) paired to represent the U.S. and won gold at the 2023 NORCECA Beach Final on Sunday, Dec. 17.

The duo recently began playing together after facing each other many times in AVP and FIVB events. Cannon-Kraft took 13th in the September BPT Elite 16 event in Paris, their first tournament together. They finished ninth at the Beach Volleyball World Championship in Tlaxcala, Mexico, in mid-October; and finished fifth at the BPT Challenge Nuvali in the Philippines in early December.

Cannon and Kraft went three sets with Canada's fourth-seeded duo of Molly McBain and Sarah Pavan in the championship match and got a 21-16, 14-21, 15-11 victory to claim gold medals.

"It was really windy in the beginning of the game, and we served really well. Also, our side out was cleaner," said Kraft. "Canada served better in the second set. In the third set the wind died, so it was more a classic game, we trusted our side out and we served as tactically as we could."

"It was a good match," said Cannon. "There was a lot of back and forth like Megan said. They are a really good team, they know us well, we play them all the time, so it was exciting volleyball".

Seeded second in Juan Dolio, Cannon and Kraft emerged from pool play unscathed with a 6-0 record in sets. They defeated pairs from Panama, Guatemala, and Costa Rica to reach the quarterfinals. There, the Trojan duo took down the top-seeded home-country pair of Crismii Paniagua and Nallelin Taveras of the Dominican Republic, 21-6, 21-9. In the semifinal, Cannon-Kraft faced Puerto Rico's third-seeded team of Maria Gonzalez and Allanis Navas in their first three-set match of the tournament and won. 21-19, 18-21, 16-14.

On the men's side, USC alum Andy Benesh paired with Miles Partain to win bronze medals.

Under fifth-year head coach Dain Blanton, the USC beach volleyball team captured its third straight NCAA Championship (fifth NCAA title and sixth national title) in 2023. The Women of Troy finished the year ranked No. 1 and had an overall record of 32-5. USC added two more AVCA All-Americans to its history books with the third selection for Megan Kraft and the first-career honor for Delaynie Maple. Kraft was named the Pac-12's Player of the Year while she and Maple earned Pac-12 Pair of the Year laurels. Both were named to the Pac-12 All-Conference Team and were joined by Madison Shields and Madison White. Blanton finished his fourth season with a 105-15 career record and Gustavo Rocha was chosen as the AVCA National Assistant Coach of the Year.

For more information on the USC beach volleyball team, a complete schedule, and results, please visit USCTrojans.com/beach. Fans of the Women of Troy can follow the team on Instagram and on X @USCBeach.

Players Mentioned

Megan Kraft

Delaynie Maple

Madison White