Australian Beach Volleyball duo Thomas Hodges and Zachery Schubert were filled with pride and confidence after their first match of Paris 2024, despite falling to Poland 2-0 (21-16, 21-16).

Making their Olympic debut, the pair had a tough Pool C game to open their campaign.

Facing World Championship bronze medallists and world number 10 pair Michał Bryl and Bartosz Łosiak (POL), Thomas and Zachery went into the match ready to leave it all out on court, ranked 16th in the world.

Strong serves and attack points were advantageous to the Australians early in the first set, keeping the pair in touch on the scoreboard.

However, a momentum shift from a few team errors had them on the backfoot and they were unable to catch Poland in the 20-minute first set.

“Poland is always a powerhouse of volleyball. They've been at the top of the world for quite a few years,” Thomas said.

“We were expecting a tough match. They showed some incredible skill, but we showed some of our best and thought, ‘Hey, we can actually stop these guys and we can take it to a team like that’.

“So we'll take some confidence from that game and then go back and see where we can do better.”

Determined to give their all, Thomas and Zachery pushed aside their nerves and focused on individual points.

But the Australians struggled in the second half of the match and ultimately lost the second set and subsequently the game.

Optimistic about their prospects going forward, it was an experience the debutants were able to savour. The pair were full of pride after the match, saying they could hear the ‘Aussie, Aussie, Aussie’ chant from the fans.

“The atmosphere was incredible. It was really funny. You're trying to look around to see people. I was trying to see my family but couldn't see them. I had no idea where they were,” Zachery said.

“It was cool because nearly every corner and every patch of the stadium had an Aussie flag or a kangaroo or something going on.

“So it's really exciting to see that there's other Aussies here that we don't actually know, that aren't our families, which is just cool. It was a great experience.”

Article courtesy of Australian Olympic Team by Shannon Knaus