Articles by "Volleyball"
Showing posts with label Volleyball. Show all posts

at 2:40 PM 0
(C)sun-sentinel

The beach volleyball scene is alive and well in the Cooper City Optimist Crush summer league that offers recreational play for adults and children. What was once an outdoor hockey rink now serves as four beach volleyball courts at the Cooper City Sports Complex.


The league was the brainchild of Robbie Johnson who was the driving force in getting the program initiated back in 2017. The process took three years to complete, but under commissioner Johnson’s guidance the league has flourished with 350 players registered this summer. Jill Smitherman is the assistant commissioner and clinic supervisor Michael Hartman provides free clinics for the players and coaches to bring up the skill and knowledge levels.
The Crush offer five coed age divisions: 10U, 12U, 14U, seniors and adults.
In the six-team senior division comprising high school players, the FSU squad coached by Yvonne Johnson improved to 9-0 with a 25-13, 25-6 victory over UF. The beach competition features four-on-four play. The FSU team was led by the strong play of Jack Smitherman and Kristen Hernandez.
The 6-foot-4-inch Smitherman comes from a volleyball family and has been playing the indoor and beach game since age 6. The 16-year-old rising junior is also a quarterback for American Senior High School. In a sign of solidarity, his wide receiver Council Allen also joined the FSU team for fun and conditioning purposes.
“I love playing out here and it’s a great way to work out and stay in shape,” Smitherman said. “I’ve been in this league for all three years and the first year there weren’t many teams, but this year you see the explosion in popularity. It’s important to teach the younger players in order for the game and league to move forward. It feels great to help out when I can.”
Other members of the FSU club are Sara Wolf and Kaylee Rizzi.z
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at 10:30 PM 0
(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.
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at 9:59 AM
Chennai Spartans, the victors of the debut Pro Volleyball League, have made it to the main four among Asian clubs after they achieved the semi-finals of Asian Club Volleyball Championships on Wednesday in Taiwan.




The Spartans beat Vietnamese club Ho Chi Min City 25-21, 25-18, 25-21 in the quarter-last to make it to the last four.

In the semi-finals, they will either play against Taichung Bank from Taiwan or Iran's Shahrdari Varamin.

Out of the blue since 1986, an Indian volleyball crew is in decoration dispute at the Asian Level. In the event that India win the semi-last, they will likewise play for gold in the last or the consequences will be severe, they will play for a bronze award.

So far in the competition, Rudy Verhoeff and Ruslans Sorokins, who were significant to Spartans' title-winning effort in February, have been imperative pinions in the wheel for the group in Taiwan too.

Be that as it may, it's the Indian ability of Jerome Vineeth and Aswal Rai, which has made heads turn in the competition.

The Vietnamese club ran the Indians close in the principal set and it was some fine assaulting by any semblance of Jerome Vineeth and Ruslans Sorokins that helped the Spartans catch the favorable position.

The following set saw any semblance of Rudy Verhoeff and Naveen Raja Jacob venture up and the couple guaranteed the Spartans never gave away the preferred standpoint in spite of some fine spiking by Nguyen Van Hanh. This permitted Coach Kumara the opportunity to experiment with his stores.

Ho Chi Minh pushed the Spartans hard in the last set, however the late resurgence just deferred the unavoidable as the Indian club scored up their back to back second in a row set triumph.

The Spartans mentor M.H Kumara communicated his fulfillment with the execution.

"It was our best outcome so far in this competition as we are presently among the main four groups alongside powerhouses like Japan, Iran and conceivable Qatar. We played gravely just in the principal match and after that we lifted it up to win the rest of the matches. We have achieved the semi-finals without precedent for India's history. My players came here on April 13 and had a brief timeframe to prepare together as a full group here, only two days in front of the challenge. I think my players played well in this match as far as the quality and key arrangement."
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