Sara Hughes

Sara Elizabeth Hughes (born February 14, 1995) is an American beach volleyball player.

With teammate Kelly Cheng, she achieved a career-high world ranking of No. 2 in August 2023.

Hughes has won six tournaments on the AVP Pro Tour and seven gold medals, one silver medal, and three bronze medals on the FIVB World Tour/Pro Beach Tour.

Hughes began her beach volleyball training in Huntington Beach, California, at the age of eight.

From 2004 to 2012, she was mostly partnered with Justine Wong-Orantes, playing as a blocker.

With Wong-Orantes, Hughes placed ninth at the 2011 and 2012 U19 World Championships.

Hughes also played club indoor volleyball as the setter for Mizuno Long Beach, and was named most valuable player after her club won the 16-U Junior Olympics national championship in 2011.

She played indoor volleyball for Mater Dei High School as well and was the Orange County Player of the Year as a senior.

Regarded as one of the top high school recruits for both beach and indoor, Hughes committed to playing beach volleyball for the USC Trojans in her junior year of high school.

Beach volleyball had just become an NCAA Emerging Sport for Women at the time and Hughes decided to forgo collegiate indoor volleyball as "sand was [her] real passion."

She also finished fourth at the 2012 U21 World Championships with Summer Ross.

The following year, Hughes began playing with Kelly Claes and transitioned into a full-time defender.

As a junior, she partnered with Kelly Claes to win bronze medals at the 2013 U19 and 2014 U21 World Championships.

The duo won bronze medals at the 2013 U19 and 2014 U21 World Championships.

Hughes joined the Trojans in the 2013–14 season, partnering with Kirby Burnham as the top-flight pair throughout her freshman year.

The duo won the AVCA Pairs Championship and recorded 42 wins and 4 losses by the end the season.

She was teamed with Claes as the Trojan's top-flight pair for the next three seasons.

As sophomores, Hughes and Claes won the AVCA Pairs title and led the Trojans to their first AVCA National Championship, completing the season with a 44–3 win–loss record.

In their junior year, they won the inaugural Pac-12 Pairs Championship and were named the Pac-12 Pair of the Year.

Women's beach volleyball was also promoted to an NCAA Championship sport that year, and Hughes and Claes helped the Trojans win the first-ever NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship, defeating the Florida State Seminoles' top pair in straight sets in the finals.

They ended the season with an undefeated 48–0 record and were selected to the NCAA All-Tournament Team.

Her partnership with Claes continued through college, where the pair won 103 consecutive collegiate matches and led the USC Trojans to back-to-back NCAA Championships in 2016 and 2017.

Hughes and Claes capped off a dominant year by winning the 2016 World University Championships without dropping a set the entire tournament.

As seniors, the duo repeated as Pac-12 Pairs Champions and were once again named Pair of Year.

They led the Trojans to their second consecutive NCAA title, coming back from a first set loss in the finals to beat the top-flight duo from Pepperdine.

Hughes and Claes completed their senior year with a 55–1 win–loss record, amassing an overall record of 147 wins and 4 losses in their three seasons together.

Soon after turning professional in mid-2017, Hughes and Claes became the youngest team to win an AVP event when they won the season-ending Championship.

She is the 2017 FIVB Top Rookie.

Hughes was born in Long Beach, California, to Rory and Laura.

She has an older brother, Connor, and an older sister, Lauren.

Her mother is a former volleyball player and both her siblings played the sport in college, with Connor winning two NCAA Men's Volleyball Championships with the UC Irvine Anteaters.

Growing up in Costa Mesa, California, in a volleyball-playing family, Hughes regularly attended her siblings' practices and tournaments.

During one such instance, a player's parent was impressed by eight-year-old Hughes' peppering and recommended her to local beach volleyball youth coach Bill Lovelace.

According to Hughes, she first came to love the sport when Lovelace praised her ball control as the best he had ever seen for an eight-year-old.

After a successful tryout, she began training under Lovelace every summer in Huntington Beach until she was 15.

A standout junior beach volleyball player, Hughes won numerous tournaments on the Amateur Athletic Union and California Beach Volleyball Association circuits.

Hughes split from Claes in early 2018 and teamed up with Summer Ross.

In their first year playing together, Hughes and S. Ross won their first World Tour title and entered the top ten of the world rankings.

Hughes re-partnered with Cheng (née Claes) in late 2022, winning several Beach Pro Tour events including the Finals in Doha in January 2023.

Hughes is a right-side defender and has been noted for her speed and willingness to chase down balls.