COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (June 27, 2018) – Thirteen beach teams with college players competed at the USA Volleyball Collegiate Beach Open on June 18-19 in Manhattan Beach.
In the women’s final, Torrey Van Winden and Emily Sonny of Cal Poly defeated Federica Frasca and Margherita Bianchin of Florida International, 21-19, 21-12.
In the third-place match, Louisiana State’s Claire Coppola and Kristen Nuss beat the Junior Beach National Team pair of Devon Newberry and Lindsey Sparks, 28-30, 21-12, 15-11.
In the men’s final, Hagen Smith of UCLA and Lucas Yoder of USC beat the Junior Beach National Team pair of Tim Brewster and John Schwengel.
In the third-place match, Hawaii’s Brett Rosenmeier and Colton Cowell defeated Florida State’s Jon Justice and Adam Wienckowski in a rematch of the men’s final at the USAV Collegiate Beach Championships in May, which Justice and Weinckowski won.
Coppola and Nuss, who won the 2018 Collegiate Beach Championships on May 9-12, will represent the United States at the World University Championships on July 9-13 in Munich, Germany. Florida State’s Katie Horton and Hailey Luke will also compete in Munich.
Justice/Wienckowski and Colton/Rosenmeier will compete in the men’s bracket in Germany.
The Junior Beach National Teams of Newberry/Sparks and Brewster/Schwengel will compete at the FIVB U19 World Championships on July 10-15 in Nanjing, China.
POLAND FOUR-STAR
The FIVB four-star tournament in Warsaw, Poland began Wednesday with the qualification round. Emily Day and Betsi Flint qualified for the women’s main draw and Casey Patterson/Stafford Slick qualified for the men.
Day and Flint beat Alise Lece/Ilze Liepinlauska of Latvia (21-13, 21-16) and Andrea Strbova/Natalia Dubovcova of Slovakia (23-21, 16-21, 15-12).
Patterson/Slick beat China’s Zhuoxin Li and Chaowei Zhou, 21-16, 21-16. They beat China’s Likejiang Ha and Jiaxin Wu, 18-21, 22-20, 15-7.
The U.S. men’s team of Trevor Crabb/John Mayer won its first-round qualifying match, but lost in the second round.
The main draw will begin on Thursday. Other U.S. teams competing are Kerri Walsh Jennings/Nicole Branagh, Sara Hughes/Summer Ross and Kelly Claes/Brittany Hochevar and Taylor Crabb/Jake Gibb.
Hannah Gaveske and Stacy Struble are providing sports medicine support.
The events in Ostrava and Poland are the first time that Beach Director of Coaching Tyler Hildebrand will travel with the teams.
AVP SEATTLE
Day and Flint won the women’s title at the AVP event in Seattle. In the final, they defeated Caitlin Ledoux/April Ross, 19-21, 21-19, 18-16. Ross was playing with Ledoux as Alix Klineman recovers from an injury.
In the men’s final, Crabb/Gibb beat Dalhausser/Lucena, 21-16. 21-19.
HALL OF FAMER
April Ross was inducted into the USC Athletics Hall of Fame on May 19.