Information and photo courtesy of volleyball.org.au
Day two of the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Futures event at Coolangatta saw some of the best athletes from Australia and abroad fight it out to progress through to the ‘Round of 12’ on Saturday.
In 2024, Lara Maric competed in her first Beach Pro Tour event at only 16 years of age. Now one year older she is back for her second year – partnering with Kayla Mears, who has 12 Beach Pro Tour events of experience under her belt.
“It feels really good to be back competing at another Beach Pro Tour,” Maric said.
“I’m just keen to play together and keep building our momentum, and it helps when you’ve got an experienced player like Kayla by your side, so I am super keen for the week.
“I think it really helps that when we’re coming up against teams with lots of different skills, she’s been really good at helping us stay accountable for playing our game style.
“It’s been really good and I love playing against big competitors, and I’m super keen just to show our skills against them.”
Mears said it was fantastic to be back playing on the Gold Coast at Volleyslam 2025.
“It’s unreal to be back at Coolie,” Mears said. “I was away for three months in New Zealand, so being back on our home beach is really, really cool.
“It’s my first tournament with Lara, and I’m very excited to see what we can do – but we’re definitely aiming to get through to Super Sunday this weekend.
“Playing with Lara has been awesome – she is super talented, and a young gun coming through.
“We’re still exploring what we can do as a team, and there’s a lot of growth that I want to see us go through, and see if we can push through to finals on Sunday.”
The opportunity to share the beach with the athletes representing their states at Youth Championships is something Kayla admires, as she too began her beach volleyball journey donning the Queensland jersey.
“I think this Volleyslam festival is really special, in that there are a thousand kids on the beach, and we get to watch them play, and they get to watch us play as well,” Mears said.
“It’s the grassroots, and that’s where I started, so it’s pretty cool for them to see where we can get to as well.
“And it is also exciting ahead of the Beach Volleyball World Championships in Adelaide later in the year.
“I definitely want to get down to the World Champs at the end of the year, whether it’s playing, volunteering or helping our girls out.”
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