East Coast Open Crowns Champions

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (May 23, 2011) – The USA Beach Junior Tour held its East Coast Open on May 22 in Charleston, S.C., its fourth tournament of the 2011 season.

Participants from Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina were pleasantly surprised by the uncharacteristic May weather of the East Coast. The warm air, hot sand and cool sea breeze proved ideal weather for all of the matches.

The girls’ under-12 division gold-medal was won by the team of Hope Harrison (Mount Pleasant, S.C.) and partner, Regan Mckinley (Mount Pleasant, S.C.).

Lauren Percy (Charleston, S.C.) and McKala Rhodes (Charleston, S.C.) topped the team of Katja Ehlers (Pinehust, N.C.) and Mia Fradenburg (Durham, N.C.), 28-20 to win the gold in the girls’ U-14 division. Ehlers and Fradenburg took the silver while the bronze medal match concluded in a tie between Elle Blakeney (Mt. Pleasant, S.C.) and Marla Sagatelian (Mount Pleasant, S.C.) along with Elisa Aldrich (Mt. Pleasant, S.C.) and Morgan Grant (Isle of Palms, S.C.)

The girls’ U-16 bout was hard fought between two local teams: Mikaela Conley (Mount Pleasant, S.C.) and Mary Elizabeth Siebert (Mount Pleasant, S.C.) played Alex Casale (Mt. Pleasant, S.C.) and Natalie Tucker (Isle of Palms, S.C.). The match finished with Conley and Siebert earning the gold, 32-30 over silver medalists Casale and Tucker. Finishing in a tie for third were Cassidy Stephenson (Wilmington, N.C.) and Alyssa Zupan (Wilmington, N.C.) and Julianne Dahlam (Charleston, S.C.) and Heather Harrison (Mount Pleasant, S.C.)

The next stops on the 2011 USA Beach Junior Tour are the Desert Open on May 28 in Phoenix, Ariz., and the San Diego Open on March 28 at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, Calif.

For more information on the tour or to register for this event and future events, visit usabeach.org.

Tags: Beach, Beach Volleyball, USA Beach Junior Tour