COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (June 17, 2019) – Four U.S. beach teams are set to compete at the FIVB Under-21 World Championships on June 18-23 in Udon Thani, Thailand.
The women’s teams competing are Bella Bauman/Teagan DeFalco and Mima Mirkovic/Caroline Shafer. The men’s teams are Tim Brewster/Adam Wienckowski and John Schwengel/Jacob Titus.
Mirkovic/Shafer and Schwengel/Titus placed second at the qualifying event (April 14-15 in Chula Vista, Calif.) and will start competing Tuesday (Monday evening in the U.S.) in the qualification bracket.
Schwengel/Titus are scheduled to play Bruno Seminario/Gabriel Vásquez of Peru in the qualifier on Monday at 7:30 p.m. PT.
Mirkovic/Shafer are scheduled to play Wing Laam Ng/Man Ching Wong of Hong Kong in the qualifier at 9:10 p.m. PT.
Main draw play will begin Wednesday (Tuesday evening in the U.S.).
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.