Welcome back to SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, where Mewhirter is back on a late-night edition breaking down the 2025 Beach Volleyball World Championships, where Thursday turned positively bonkers. Where to start? How about with... - France's Arnaud Gauthier-Rat and Teo Rotar shocking medal favorites Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan - Germany's Nils Ehlers and Clemens Wickler figuring it out at the right time in a critical upset over Norway's Anders Mol and Christian Sorum - USA Volleyball's Chaim Schalk and James Shaw continuing their Cinderella run with an upset victory over Cuba's Jorge Alayo and Noslen Diaz But then, of course, there was some sense of normalcy, as: - Sweden's David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig swept France's Remi Bassereau and Calvin Aye, while countrymen Elmer Andersson and Jacob Holting-Nilsson swept Andre and Renato - Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson continued their tour de force, as did Brazil's Barbara and Carol and Latvia's Tina Graudina and Anastasija Samoilova - Kelly Cheng and Molly Shaw left no doubt in a convincing win over the Czech Republic, and the Czech men, Ondrej Perusic and David Schweiner, left no doubt in their win over Portugal's Joao Pedrosa and Hugo Campos - Kristen Nuss and Taryn Brasher hang on to beat Raisa Schoon and Katja Stam Close calls were won by... - Evandro and Arthur, who snuck past Marco Krattiger and Leo Dillier - Sven Winter and Lukas Pfretzschner, who battled with Hendrik Mol and Mathias Berntsen - Thamela and Victoria, who slipped past a very talented Ukraine team in Tetiana Lazarenko and Daria Romaniuk And a huge bummer of an event in Ana Patricia and Duda pulling out to injury. While it benefited USA Volleyball's Julia Donlin and Lexy Denaburg, it was a massive bummer SHOOTS! *** WE'VE GOT MERCH! Check it out here!! Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCAST-20. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball Get 10 PERCENT OFF VBTV using our discount code, SANDCAST10 Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products!  We are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Get a FREE year's supply of Vitamin D by purchasing with that link.  If you want to receive our SANDCAST weekly newsletter, the Beach Volleyball Digest, which dishes all the biggest news in beach volleyball in one quick newsletter, head over to our website and subscribe! We'd love to have ya! https://www.sandcastvolleyball.com/ Our medical timeout was brought to you by SHIELD Athletic Tape. If you’re an athlete, coach, or just train hard, you know that staying healthy is easier said than done— it’s about staying supported. That’s where SHIELD comes in. SHIELD is a U.S.-based athletic tape company built by athletes, for athletes. Whether it’s rigid tape for serious support, kinesiology tape with true 4-way stretch for maximum mobility, or turf tape to fight off burns on the field — SHIELD’s got you covered. They even make recovery wraps for post-session cooldowns and inflammation control. And because it’s all made right here in the U.S., you’re getting elite quality and fast delivery —they are truly not cutting corners. Try SHIELD today — support that actually performs. Check them out at shieldhealthandfitness.com and use code SANDCAST for a discount. Tape smarter. Train harder. SHIELD up.