COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (April 17, 2019) – Three women’s and three men’s beach teams have qualified to compete at the FIVB Under 21 World Championships on June 18-23 in Udonthani, Thailand.
On the women’s side, Bella Bauman/Teagan DeFalco, Mima Mirkovic/Caroline Shafer and Alaina Chacon/Devon Newberry have qualified.
For the men, Tim Brewster/Adam Wienckowski, John Schwengel/Jacob Titus and Heath Hughes/Dane Johnson finished in the top three.
The teams qualified at a two-day trials event held April 14-15 in Chula Vista, Calif.
All three teams from each gender will be submitted to the FIVB for the World Championships. As the winning teams, Bauman/DeFalco and Brewster/Wienckowski will be submitted for the main draw.
The second-place teams of Mirkovic/Shafer and Schwengel/Titus will be submitted into the qualification tournament and the third-place teams of Chacon/Newberry and Hughes/Johnson will be submitted as reserve teams with a chance for a wild card spot in the tournament.
Bauman plays beach volleyball for Grand Canyon University while DeFalco plays indoor volleyball for the school.
Brewster attends UCLA and competed at the 2018 FIVB U19 World Championships with Schwengel, who attends Santa Monica College and finished 25th. The pair also placed fifth at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games.
Wienchowski attends Florida Atlantic University and won the 2018 USAV Collegiate Beach Championships with Jon Justice. The pair placed 18th at the 2018 World University Championships.
Mirkovic plays indoor and beach volleyball for the University of California and won the bronzed medal at the 2016 U19 World Championships and the 2017 U21 World Championships, both with Kathryn Plummer.
Shafer plays on Cal’s beach volleyball team and has been part of USAV’s High Performance Program.
Titus plays volleyball for Lincoln Memorial University. He competed at the 2018 U19 World Championships with Jason Gibbs. The pair lost in the qualifier.
Chacon plays beach volleyball at Florida State and went 6-1 in her rookie season in 2018.
Newberry, who will play beach volleyball for UCLA in the fall, finished fourth at the 2018 U19 World Championships and at the Youth Olympic Games (both with Lindsey Sparks).
Hughes plays men’s volleyball for Grand Canyon University. Dane Johnson plays men’s volleyball for El Camino College. He finished third at the 2017 trials for the U19 World Championships, but did not compete.