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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Sept. 1, 2024) – Myriah Massey/Lily Dee Davis took gold and Sally Perez/Sarah Wood took bronze as the U.S. claimed two steps on the podium at the 2024 U19 World University Championships in Shangluo, China. The U19 Beach World Championships are an FIVB event comprised of 103 teams from 50 countries representing all five continental confederations. This year’s tournament is the 18th installment of the event which started in 2002.
In the final, Massey/Davis swept Izuzquiza/Carro (ESP) 2-0 (21-16, 21-16) to take the gold medal. Perez/Wood defeated Varagkhana/Somruedee (THA) 2-0 (21-17, 21-16) in the third place match to claim the bronze.
“The gold medal means everything to us,” Davis told Volleyball World. “Representing our country is a blessing. It’s so cool to see new places this way. And I think just working this hard to win it all is a great feeling!”
Davis took the silver medal at the 2022 U19 World Championship with Ashley Pater.
“I think our biggest achievement was getting out of the qualifier because we wouldn’t have been able to get all the way here if we didn’t take care of business in the first few matches that we played,” Massey added.
Massey/Davis became tournament champions after first winning two qualifying matches to make the main draw. In pool play, the duo went 2-1, earning a berth in the Round of 16. Massey/Davis advanced past their first elimination match with a 2-0 win over Simdim/Ceylin (TUR) (21-9, 21-19) and won their quarterfinal match vs. Piret/Bex (BEL) 2-1 (18-21, 21-18, 15-9). Massey/Davis went on to hand Perez/Wood their only loss of the tournament in an all-U.S. semifinal 2-1 (12-21, 21-19, 15-5).
“Yesterday we suffered after the loss, but I think we really pushed to bounce back in today’s match. We really wanted that medal. We worked for it,” Wood told Volleyball World. “We really just stuck together. That was a big part of it. We knew we were not going to be able to do it by ourselves, so we really just pushed to stay together as a team.”
“I think after yesterday we knew we had more to prove to the world. So I’m so happy that we could take a little bit of time to be sad about it,” Perez pointed out. “We came back and we came out stronger this time. I’m just really proud of how we responded. I think at the beginning of the tournament we started a little bit slow, but then we got better in every aspect.”
Perez/Wood earned an automatic bid to the main draw going into the tournament and went undefeated in pool play. They reached the semifinal after first defeating Mori/Utsugi (JPN) 2-0 (21-17, 21-17) in the Round of 16 and Duval/Sobezalz (FRA) 2-0 (21-14, 21-17) in the quarterfinals.
Last week, U.S. pairs took home two medals at BPT Futures Halifax. This week, competition is underway in the U19 Beach World Championships. All four pairs entered advanced past the qualification phase into the main draw. We also look ahead to upcoming beach events to finish out the month.
There are several beach events on the calendar over the next few weeks, including the Beach U19 World Championships and World University Championships. The Beach Pro Tour also resumes with a slate of post-Olympic events.
