Crabb brothers reach Elite Beach Pro Tour semis in Newport Beach

NEWPORT BEACH — Trevor and Taylor Crabb are playing like they never split up.

Paired together for a top-flight international beach volleyball tournament for the first time in nine years, the Crabb brothers swept both their matches on Friday to advance to Saturday’s semifinals alongside the Newport Beach Pier.

“We’re clicking right now at the right time,” Trevor said. “After some time away from each other, I think it was good, and now we’re just rolling and having fun with it.”

The Crabbs went 2-1 in pool play on Wednesday and Thursday and the Redondo Beach residents then became the only American men’s team to advance to the quarterfinals when they beat Mark Nicolaidis and Izac Carracher of Australia in the Round of 12 on Friday morning, 21-13, 21-19

A few hours later, the Crabbs took on the silver medalists from the 2024 Paris Olympics, Nils Ehlers and Clemens Wickler of Germany, and swept them as well, 21-14, 21-18.

“The longer we go, the better we get,” Taylor said.

The Crabbs, both of whom played indoor volleyball at Long Beach State, will face Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan of Qatar in the second semifinal on Saturday at 10 a.m.

Younousse and Tijan won the bronze medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and came into the tournament tied for fourth in the world rankings, the highest-ranked men’s team in Newport Beach this week.

The Crabbs came into the tournament not knowing what to expect.

Both of their AVP partners retired from international competition, so they decided to give it another try this week and see what happens.

Previously, they enjoyed success together as newcomers on the AVP Tour, but living and traveling together became too much and they sought out new partners.

They continued to have success apart, combining to win five of the past six Manhattan Beach Opens.

“We haven’t played together in a while, but when we did play with each other, we had some success,” Taylor said. “It might be a little surprising that we made it to the semis, but at the same time I believe in our abilities. Out here, everyone is so good, anyone can beat anyone.”

The first set of the quarterfinal started awkwardly for the Crabbs with two wind-blown service aces by the Germans, but Trevor and Taylor began using the windy conditions to their advantage against Wickler and Ehlers, who stands 6-foot-11, six inches taller than Trevor and 11 inches taller than Taylor.

The Crabbs had difficulty against another 6-11 player in the pool-play round, Evandro Oliveira of Brazil, but the conditions on Friday helped neutralize Ehlers.

“We knew that they weren’t going to be as good in the wind,” Trevor said. “We went at the big guy.”

The Crabbs scored four straight points to take a 7-3 lead in the first set and the Germans never got closer than three before another four-point run put the Crabbs up 18-10 in the eventual 21-14 victory.

The Crabbs gave up the first four points in the second set, answered back by scoring the next four and only trailed once more at 5-4 before securing the 21-18 win.

“We know if we just steady out, that we’re going to make plays later on in the game and that’s what we did,” Trevor said.

The women’s bracket is guaranteed to have an American team in the final after Terese Cannon and Megan Kraft won their quarterfinal against the U.S. team of Hailey Harward and Molly Phillips, and Kristen Nuss and Taryn Brasher won theirs against the Brazilian tandem of Carol Solberg and Rebecca Cavalcanti, who came into the tournament ranked No. 3 in the world.

Their semifinal will follow the Crabb’s semi.

Two more U.S. teams faced off in the final quarterfinal of the day and it went three sets before Julia Donlin and Lexy Denaburg eliminated Kelly Cheng and Molly Shaw.

Donlin attended North Carolina for two years, Hawaii for a year and played her final season at USC. Denaburg is a Florida native who played at USC from 2020-23.

They will face 2024 Olympic gold medalist Ana Patrícia Ramos of Brazil and her partner, Duda dos Santos Lisboa, in the other semifinal.

The men’s final is scheduled for 2 p.m., followed by the women’s final.