Sports
Locals Bump, Set, Spike at Junior Tournament
Hermosa Beach volleyball teams competed in one of AAU's largest open events for national championship titles Saturday and Sunday.
The 2010 AAU Junior National Beach Volleyball Championships came to a close Sunday afternoon in Hermosa Beach, with several local teams capturing championships in their age groups.
Of the 22 players who won gold medals, 11 were South Bay locals.
In the Boys' Under 10 Division, Sebastian Rodriguez from Hermosa Beach teamed with Bobby Barkley from Manhattan Beach to win a championship. Roy McFarland and Casey McGarry, both from Manhattan Beach, won the U12s; Tanner Smith from Hermosa Beach teamed with Louis Richard to win the U14s; and Keith Waddell from Manhattan Beach and Bobby Romano won the U16s.
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In the Girls' Under 10 Division, Ivy Stevens from Manhattan Beach and Harper Goldfarb took the title. Natalie Anselmo from Manhattan Beach and Olivia Zelon won the U12s; Skylar Dykstra from Hermosa Beach and Tiffany Morales from Redondo Beach won the U16s; and Amanda Yamate and Dessi Koleva, both from Torrance, won the U18s.
On Saturday the 200 teams in the tournament followed a double-elimination format, playing on one of the 44 courts. Teams that qualified moved on to play Sunday in the single-elimination playoffs.
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Each championship was one game that was played to 28; win by two. Traditional beach volleyball finals follow a best-of-3 format with two games to 21 and one game to 15.
In the girls 18U division, Yamate and Koleva defeated their Long Beach Club teammates Kennedy McGrath and Allison Lee 28-18 in one of Sunday's opening championship matches.
Koleva and Yamate had finished second in last year's AAU tournament.
Yamate attributed their victory to their game plan. "We've played with and against them before so we knew what they would try to do and we were ready for it," she said.
Koleva agreed. ''We have great chemistry together, so it turned out to be a really good tournament for us," she added.
The tournament closed on Sunday with the girl's 14U championship, with finalists London Chow and Bria Green taking on Justine Wong-Orantes and Christian Jones. The teams had to take a long road to reach the finals as the girls 14U bracket consisted of 50 teams, making it the largest in the tournament. Chow and Green came out on top 28-18.
