summer volleyball season hits Fort Lauderdale

(C)sun-sentinel

Beach volleyball lovers descended on Fort Lauderdale Beach for the Dig the Beach tournament. The weekend event attracted 90 teams on Saturday for the men and women’s divisions and followed that up on Sunday with 90 teams competing in the coed and junior ranks.

When the two-person teams weren’t battling each other, they had to contend with Mother Nature and temperatures in the 90s.

In the men’s open division, Dave Palm (Hialeah) and partner Yamil Yanes (Miami) defeated Alex Diaz (Miami) and Yenser Del Nogal (Miami), while Madelyne May-Anderson (Palm Beach Gardens) and Kate Privett (Grapevine, Texas) defeated the top seed Aurora Davis (Groveland) and Rileigh Powers (Oviedo) to take the women’s open crown. Davis made a triumphant return to the beach scene after giving birth two months ago.

In the women’s AAA division, Kristina Filimonova and partner Audren Correa took the title, while their male counterparts Shaun Kaufman and Rafael Robert took the men’s AAA championship.

Pompano Beach resident Neil Mayo had the good fortune of hooking up with his friend Steve Grotowski, who also happens to be a beach volleyball Olympian from Great Britain. Mayo has been playing the Dig the Beach tour for 20 years. The duo took a fifth-place finish in the men’s open.

“I kind of convinced Steve to come out of retirement and we’re out here to have some fun,” Mayo said. “We’re calling this the fun tour. Steve is coaching at Florida Atlantic University and doing the family thing, but he is still 6 feet 7 inches and has the skills. We’ve played together many times before and he just makes things so much easier. He’s smooth in every aspect of the game. We’re the seasoned veterans playing against these young guns. It’s been two years since I played in the Dig the Beach tour and they put on a great tournament.”

In the coed AA/Open division, Lexie Hamilton and Christopher Connelly were the champions. In the Junior Girls 18’s, Abigail Mason and Brishell Plumley won the title, while the Girls 16 Gold championship went to Hailey Peterson and Kaitlyn Knoblauch.