Local players shine in Rehoboth Beach volleyball tourney
Despite threats of local flooding, rainy weather and loss of beach, Mid-Atlantic Volleyball’s First Rites of Summer beach volleyball event went off without a hitch May 11-12.
Saturday play was cool with a steady east wind off the ocean. Forty-five nets were up and hundreds of players converged on Rehoboth’s beaches to test their skills against other teams. There was a range of competition, from top women’s and men’s doubles to recreational triples players and juniors competitions. Held simultaneously with the MAV weekend event was a USA Volleyball national qualifier for players age 18 and under.
In the highest-level women’s competition, Ashleigh Adams and Sarah Wood defeated Alexis Keeter and Elaina Millaway to claim the open title. Adams and Wood dominated their open-division pool play, but the playoff finals were competitive. Millaway and Keeter were undefeated all day long going into the finals.
In the men’s open division, Ayden Keeter teamed with Carson Barnes and prevailed over Ian Capp and Matthew Elias to be crowned best on the beach. Millaway from Greenwood and Barnes from Indian River are young, talented Delaware players who showed amazing promise early in their careers and have matured into elite players on the beach.
Barnes and Keeter only had one loss during pool play, against Jeremy Ayers and Logan Muller. In the playoffs, Cameron Rodrigues and young Lukas Christman bested them 21-19 in one of their three semifinal games. Christman grew up on the Delaware beaches and excelled at a young age. Rodrigues has mentored him and many other up-and-coming players.
James Moyer and his new partner Gavin Spiegel rounded out the top four of the stacked men’s open division, with 20 teams competing this year. For the most part, the top teams know each other well and have competed against each other for years.
A wide range of divisions showed players’ talents in Saturday play, including women’s doubles A-level, doubles BB and B; men’s doubles A-level, BB and B; women’s triples A, BB and B; and men’s triples A, BB and B.
Sunday was the day for coed competition, with the marquee groups being doubles in the open division. The team of Sarah Wood and Quin Zilch prevailed in the premier division by defeating Cameron Rodrigues and Christine Schlegelmilch in the finals.
Tied for third place in the Sunday open division were the teams of Brooke Dow and Josiah Hensley, and Savannah Siegrist and Mihail Valchkovski, all from Delaware.
Also in Sunday competitions were teams of coed doubles A-level, coed doubles BB, coed doubles B, coed triples A, coed triples BB, coed triples B, and four teams of coed sixes.
The Dewey Beach developmental junior group Sand Sharks was well represented over the weekend. Jon Skolnik of the Sand Sharks said it was satisfying to see current and former program participants doing so well across the growing beach volleyball landscape.
The weekend saw another successful tournament hosted by Mid-Atlantic Volleyball, an organization of dedicated volunteers who run the tournaments not for financial reward, but for love of the game. Its next beach event will takes place Sept. 14-15, in Rehoboth Beach. Find more tournament results at mav.volleyballlife.com and upcoming MAV tournament info at mavolleyball.org.
