UPDATED 9-16-20
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Sept. 14, 2020) – Top U.S. beach volleyball players and Olympians are registered to compete Nov. 6-8 at the 2020 Florida Pro Best of the Beach Tournament at Hickory Point Beach in Tavares, Fla.
The Florida Region of USA Volleyball is staging the event with support from Lake County, Florida and Molten USA among others.
Olympians registered include Phil Dalhausser (beach for U.S. in 2008, ’12, ’16; won gold in ’08), Jake Gibb (beach for U.S. in 2008, ’12, ’16), David Lee (indoor for U.S. in 2008, ’12, ’16; won gold in ’08 and bronze in ‘16), Paul Lotman (indoor for U.S. in 2012), Ricardo Santos (beach for Brazil in 2000, ’04, ’08 and ’12; won silver in ’00, gold in ’04 and bronze in ’08) and Chaim Schalk (beach for Canada in 2016).
Also registered are U.S. beach volleyball Olympic hopefuls Kelly Claes, Taylor Crabb, Trevor Crabb, Kelley (Larsen) Kolinske, Sarah Sponcil and Emily Stockman.
No teams are registered for the event, which will have a king/queen of the beach format. Each gender will have up to 28 athletes in the field. The top 12 go straight to the main draw. The other 16 will play in the qualifier. The final field will be announced on Sept. 18.
Each athlete will be placed in a pool based on their USA Volleyball ranking points heading into the event. Each athlete will play with everyone in their pool and the athlete with the best record at the end of the pool moves on to the next day.
At the end of Friday, the top four qualifier athlete will advance to Saturday’s main draw. After Saturday, pool winners will choose a partner from the 2nd-4th place teams from all pools to compete with them on Sunday.
The event will offer $50K in prize money ($25K per gender) and will pay out to 16th place. Other amenities will include private showers and locker rooms, air-conditioned athlete VIP area, live streaming of four competition courts and paid officials for all matches.
The event will be open to spectators and will follow CDC and Florida state guidelines for safety amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I am excited to see the Florida region of USA Volleyball staging a world-class event with several of the top beach volleyball players in America planning to participate,” USAV President and CEO Jamie Davis said. “Since the outbreak of COVID-19, much of the international volleyball calendar has been cancelled. The Florida Pro Best of the Beach tournament will provide our USA Volleyball athletes with a great vehicle to earn prize money and compete against the world’s top players as they prepare for the 2020ne Tokyo Olympic Games.”
Get more information at floridavolleyball.org.