Credit: volleyball.org.au
Coolangatta Beach welcomed elite international and domestic players to its sand Wednesday for the start of the Beach Pro Tour Futures event that will see players compete over the coming three days.
The third of four events included in VolleySlam on the Gold Coast, the Beach Pro Tour Futures event will conclude on Sunday March 24, following days of qualification and main draw competition.
Following qualification Wednesday, the existing Australian teams in the men’s draw will be joined by Mahindra Australian Beach Volleyball Championships bronze medallists Garang Anyang and Justin Schumann and teenage pair Jett Rocker-Graham and Killian Donovan who both successfully made it through qualifying.
Anyang and Schumann beat German pair Niko Meyer and Moritz Klein (2:1) and Danish duo Christian Lundby Andersen and Marius Stenmann Hansen (2:0) in order to advance.
“Offensively we just had to play our best game and stay confident in our shot selection,” said Anyang after this afternoon’s match against the Danish pair.
“For a bit there they were playing really well defensively and we started questioning our strategy, but we just went back to our basics, run our offense and attack the way we wanted to, and I would say that’s what won us the game,” started Anyang.
“Late last year we made the semi-final at a Futures event, so our plan is to try and better that result,” he said.
Schumann agreed, praising his partner for thinking quick on his feet.
“Garang called some really good time outs, communicated really well defensively and was super quick to pick up on what they were doing, so he was brilliant and really got us back in the game,” said Schumann.
“It is a Futures event so it really depends who shows up for each game and plays better on the day.
“Most games can go either way, pretty irregardless of the seating, so we’ll just stick to our game and continue working together for every point,” he finished.
Rocker-Graham and Donovan’s qualification marks a significant milestone in their young careers. They had only ever played in one Futures event before today (at Mollymook in February), which resulted in a loss to Anyang and Schumann in their first qualifying match.
Phoebe Bell and Caitlin Bettenay Wednesday continued the form that earned them silver at last weekend’s Mahindra Australian Beach Volleyball Championships, winning their qualification match against Anna Donlan and Kelsey Bradbury from the USA (2:0).
The duo, who refer to themselves as the ‘B Team’ in reference to their last names, will join Australian pairs Jasmine Fleming and Georgia Johnson, Stefanie Fejes and Jana Milutinovic, and Jasmine Rayner and Elizabeth Alchin in pool matches from tomorrow.
Main draw matches will take place from 9am AEST Thursday, with the morning’s results influencing the matchups that will take place Thursday afternoon.
Click here for draws and results
Volleyslam 2024 is supported by Experience Gold Coast and the Queensland Government through Tourism and Events Queensland.
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