Hermosa Beach welcomes the 29th Annual AAU Junior National Beach Volleyball Championships running July 21-24th. We are excited to be here and catch all the action. Day 2 play featured 18, 16, 15 and 14U. 18U and 16U were battling in pool play to make Gold bracket. For 15 and 14U it was Day 1 of their pool play. With all matches at AAU played to one set anything can happen. Here are the teams which impressed us and made our Day 2 Show Stoppers.
18U
Erin Inskeep/Ashley Pater – This team battled through the consolation pool to make the gold bracket. One of the top defending tandems, they can do it all with top tier ball control. Finding more offense can give them a deep run.
Bailey Showalter/Madison White – This duo of USC commits dominated play. Showalter’s ability to reach over the net blocking is solid. White puts away balls with a quick and powerful swing, they are playing like the No. 1 seed overall.
Ensley Alden/Taylor Hagenah – The power that these two possess is daunting. Both have a heavy swing complimented by excellent ball control. What really stands out watching this group is their on court chemistry. Communication, body language and energy is a big part of this team.
Indigo Clarke/Phoenix Clarke – We love watching these two sisters play. Their tempo and style is upbeat, catching many teams scrambling to get into position. Phoenix has a good swing capable of some extreme angels.
Malia Gementera/Kylie Vaickus – This team dominated. Gementera has an impressive high reach on her swing, giving her the ability to cut the ball sharply inside the block and score with ease.
16U
Victoria Henkel/Stacey Reeves – Reeves continues to impress with her energy and court presence. Playing upbeat and backing it up with big swings sets a strong tone for her team. Henkel adds sound defense and good serves puts this duo in medal contention.
Katherine Morley/Julia Waugh – Morley and Waugh are a sound ball control group who doesn’t make too many errors. Morley is very savvy at the net with her ability to mix up her shots confusing defenders. Waugh has an excellent passing touch and places the ball well with her swings.
Claire Sun/Logan Tusher – This team has a deep run in them. Both 6-0 splits have good ball control and definitely can put balls away. Tusher has a good touch and controls the ball well. Sun has good court vision combined with a power swings, giving this duo plenty of offense.
Haylee Lafontaine/Danielle Sparks – Sparks defense is clean. She reads and covers most shots complimenting Lafontaine’s effectiveness blocking. A good blocker Lafontaine can also hit a good heavy ball, making this a very balanced team.
15U
Elena Fisher/Kyra Zaengle – This group showed excellent ball control. They both locate their serve well leading to long serving runs. Zaengle is very quick picking up shots and on scramble plays not allowing opponents any easy points.
Mikki Carlin/Kiara Edwards – Edwards was a force attacking today. A 6-0 attacker with a nice over the top swing, she see’s the court well. She’s able to not only power the ball cross court but also showed a good wrist away swing that produced good results.
Audrey Davis/Samantha Hsu – Davis’ attacks were scoring a lot. Her athleticism shows when she simply overpowered the block with her jump to crush the ball straight down.
Jade Curtis/Pyper Nelson – Curtis plays with good energy. She covers the court with her quick defense and proceeds to put balls in play while not making errors to put a lot of pressure on defenses. Nelson plays the net well, showing good athleticism reading the ball and then being able to hit a good ball in transition.
14U
Ella Olson/Addison Terrell – We enjoyed watching this duo. A smart team that takes advantages open spots on offense either with a variety of cut shots, plus the occasional option play, but also with the power of Terrell. She brings the heat with a good over the top swing peppering the sidelines.
Layla Austin/Jordyn Scribner – Austin continues her hot play as of late. Making deep medal runs the last two tournaments her team dominated pool play. Her arm is electric and if she gets on top of it, watch out because that ball is coming in hot!
Olga Nikolaeva/Thais Treumann – Olga continued her victory at the BVCA last week with a dominating day in pool play. On defense her fast feet combined with good footwork and powerful makes her conversion points hard to dig.
Emma Champagne/Anabelle Redaelli – Champagne is a 6-0 blocker who has a good feel for the ball. She has the ability to block and contend tight sets. Also, she has a good jump and swing putting balls in play with pace.
