Beach ParaVolley Finishes Season with Historic Tournament

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Dec. 1, 2022) – A $20,000 prize purse is on the line this weekend when U.S. and Australian teams compete at the USA Volleyball Beach ParaVolley Recognized Development Event (RDE) on Dec. 2-4 at Hickory Point Beach in Tavares, Florida.

Seven U.S. teams are entered in the RDE: four women’s teams and three men’s teams. A men’s team from Australia is also competing. It is USA Volleyball’s largest beach paravolley competition to date and its first international competition.

The beach paravolley event is being held alongside the AVP’s Central Florida Open tournament and is being hosted by the USA Volleyball Florida Region.

Beach paravolley is a three-person variant of beach volleyball for disabled athletes.

In August, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) announced that beach paravolley has applied to participate in the 2028 Paralympic Games in Los Angeles. If accepted, it would be the second active volleyball discipline in the Paralympics, joining sitting volleyball.

Pool play begins Friday afternoon and continues through two waves on Saturday. Full bracket for both divisions will be Sunday, with the medal matches on Sunday afternoon. Follow the results here: https://floridaregion.bracketpal.com/tournament/52

Participating athletes:
Berklee Andrews
Mia Castro
Eric Duda
Dave Newkirk
Abram Gornik
John Kriescher
Kurt Larson
Gina Laughlin
Kyle Mason
Skye McDermott
Andrew Nation
Nicky Nieves
Autum Reagan
Nelya Schasfoort
Chris Seilkop
Dawn Stein
Avery Stephens
Hayden Thompson
Jessie West
Ahkeel Whitehead
Patrick Young