Duos from FIVB Volleyball Empowerment supported Austria, Greece, Czechia, Netherlands and Slovakia claimed zonal beach volleyball tour medals last week. A BVA Tour stop took place in Balikesir, Turkiye, while a MEVZA Tour event (pictured in the main photo; source: mevza.org) was held in Innsbruck, Austria, with teams from Turkiye, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary also making their way to the podiums.

BVA Zonal Tour in Balikesir

Greece’s Dimitra Manavi & Elisavet Triantafillidi defeated Dutch wild cards Benthe Essink & Lieke Gijsen in the women’s final of the BVA Zonal Tour event in Balikesir, while the bronze went to Romania’s Francesca Ioana Alupei & Beata Vaida. In the men’s competition, Greek representatives Stavros Ntallas & Dimitrios Chatzinikolaou took bronze, while Yusuf Ozdemir & Batuhan Kuru delighted the home crowd with a win over Bulgaria’s Dimitar Mehandzhiyski & Dimitar Kalchev in the gold medal showdown.

The Greek federation’s beach volleyball department has so far been allocated a total of USD 262,500 in FIVB Volleyball Empowerment coach support for their national duos, who have been working under the guidance of Konstantinos Pothitakis and Efstathios Chandrinos. The Dutch federation has so far been granted a total of USD 217,600 in national beach volleyball team coach support from FIVB Volleyball Empowerment. Their women’s pairs benefit from the expertise of Cypriot coach Antreas Savvidis.

The top-seeded Greek team of Dimitra Manavi & Elisavet Triantafillidi finished runners-up in their pool in Balikesir, but then cruised through the playoffs without dropping a single set in three matches played. They triumphed on top of the podium after a 2-0 (21-9, 21-14) sweep of the final against fifth-seeded Benthe Essink & Lieke Gijsen of the Netherlands, who reached the gold medal showdown undefeated in three games played. Second-seeded Romanians Francesca Ioana Alupei & Beata Vaida settled for bronze after mastering a 2-0 (21-17, 21-9) win over Moldova’s Ana Nicolaev & Valeria Gherman.

Women’s results and standings

On the men’s side, top-seeded Greek pair Stavros Ntallas & Dimitrios Chatzinikolaou reached the last four without dropping a single set, but then they yielded to third-seeded home favorites Yusuf Ozdemir & Batuhan Kuru in a 2-0 (21-17, 21-9) semifinal. The Greeks bounced back with a 2-0 (21-14, 21-15) sweep of the third-place match against another Turkish duo, Tuna Imdat & Baris Guldali, to snatch the bronze. Both Ozdemir & Kuru and fourth-seeded Bulgarians Dimitar Mehandzhiyski & Dimitar Kalchev reached the final undefeated. In the gold medal showdown, the Turkish team proved stronger on the way to a 2-0 (21-14, 21-16) victory.

Men’s results and standings

15 men’s and 11 women’s teams from Bulgaria, Greece, Kosovo, Moldova, the Netherlands, Romania and Turkiye took part in the competition.

MEVZA Zonal Tour in Innsbruck

The entire men’s podium at the MEVZA Zonal Tour event in Innsbruck was occupied by FIVB Volleyball Empowerment beneficiaries – Austria’s Laurenc Grossig & Maximilian Trummer with gold and Felix Friedl & Florian Schnetzer with bronze, and Slovakia’s Lubos Nemec & Adrian Petruf with silver. Also with support from the program, Czechia’s Andrea Lorenzova & Mariana Tomasova took the women’s bronze. In the final, Austria’s Lia Berger & Lilli Hohenauer beat Hungary’s Stefania Flora Kun & Lilla Villam.

Austria’s beach volleyball has so far been allocated USD 84,000 in coach support from FIVB Volleyball Empowerment, in addition to another USD 6,000 for a national team coaches development knowledge transfer program. Greek coach Georgios Kotsilianos has been in charge of their men’s national duos. The Slovak Volleyball Federation’s beach volleyball department has been funded with USD 126,000 in FIVB Volleyball Empowerment coach support for their national beach volleyball teams. Slovakia’s men’s pairs train under the guidance of coaches Martin Suja and Lubica Siposova. The Czech Volleyball Federation has received USD 168,000 in FIVB Volleyball Empowerment coach support for their women’s beach volleyball teams and another USD 24,000 in national team coach development knowledge transfer programs. Their women’s pairs take advantage of Argentinean coach Sebastian Menegozzo’s expertise.

Second-seeded Austrians Laurenc Grossig & Maximilian Trummer went through the entire tournament in Innsbruck without losing a set in five matches played. In a hard-fought semifinal, they outlasted sixth-seeded compatriots Felix Friedl & Florian Schnetzer by 2-0 (25-23, 21-17) and went on to celebrate gold after a 2-0 (22-20, 21-13) victory over top-seeded Slovakians Lubos Nemec & Adrian Petruf in the final. Nemec & Petruf started the tournament with a surprising loss, but then pushed through to the last match with four wins in a row. Friedl & Schnetzer recovered with a tight 2-1 (24-26, 21-16, 15-13) win over eighth-seeded Krystof Oliva & Vaclav Kurka of Czechia.

Men’s results and standings

With three wins in a row, fourth-seeded Czechs Andrea Lorenzova & Mariana Tomasova reached the last four. Their winning run was interrupted in the semifinals by the Austrian champions-to-be, second-seeded Lia Berger & Lilli Hohenauer, with a narrow 2-0 (21-18, 21-19) defeat. Lorenzova & Tomasova bounced back with a 2-0 (22-20, 21-18) upset of top-seeded Slovenians Tjasa Kotnik & Maja Marolt for the bronze. Berger & Hohenauer went on to master a 2-0 (21-14, 21-11) sweep of the final against third-seeded Stefania Flora Kun & Lilla Villam of Hungary and complete a perfect run of five straight-set victories in the tournament.

Women’s results and standings

28 men’s and 28 women’s duos from Austria, Czechia, Hungary, Israel, Slovakia and Slovenia took part in the competition.

Pleasant Point man Clive Power has been made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to swimming in the King’s Birthday Honours.

Mr Power has dedicated more than 50 years to coaching and mentoring both coaches and swimmers at all levels, and was instrumental in the success of some of New Zealand’s top swimmers and swim coaches.

He said the honour was a surprise, but one he was very appreciative of.

While for most of his career he was based in the North Island, and in the recreation department at Christchurch Polytechnic, he and his wife Joyce moved to Pleasant Point 14 years ago, to be closer to their two sons.

He picked up the role of coach at CBay when it opened, until a permanent appointment could be made.

At 79, he says over the last couple of years he has “slowly petered out”.

“It’s really time to step down and let the next generation come through.”

Educated mostly in Te Awamutu, before heading to university and teacher’s college, his physical education background led to his career in coaching.

“I used to look after ‘the baths’ and drifted in to coaching from that point on.

“I wasn’t a swimmer of any note at all, I played mostly water polo, but there wasn’t the same number of coaches at that time, and it was just how things happened.”

The sport had changed considerably over the past 50 years, from lifting weights made out of concrete in the garage, to today’s high-performance centres.

“You had to be creative, you had to think about things a little more deeply, to make things work.”

Holding several positions at regional, national and international levels including as New Zealand swim team coach for several tours, Commonwealth Games, Olympics Games and Paralympics Games, Mr Power said there had been a lot of highlights.

“To focus on one would be unkind to a lot of the athletes I coached.”

However, his involvement in taking paralympic swimming from something “pretty gratuitous” to today’s sport for high performance athletes in their own right and on an equal footing to their able-bodied fellow athletes, was particularly satisfying.

Now enjoying being based in South Canterbury, Mr and Mrs Power were making the most of the opportunity to explore in their motorhome.

“As with everybody that gets to this point, you have to pass on your thanks to family members.

“There’s a hell of a lot of sacrifices that go into careers, you can’t be whistling off overseas without that support.”

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Irvine, CA – June 5 – The USA Men’s Junior National Team roster has been announced for the upcoming World Aquatics Men’s Junior World Championships (U20) starting later this month in Zagreb, Croatia. Head Coach Jack Kocur will lead 15 of the top up and coming athletes from around the country into action starting on June 14. Team USA was drawn into Group A and will meet Croatia, Hungary, and Montenegro in group play. A champion will be crowned on June 21. Live streaming and statistics information will be available ASAP.

Men’s Junior National Team (Hometown/School/Club)

1. Charles Mills (Tiburon, CA/USC/San Francisco Water Polo)

2. Baxter Chelsom (Los Angeles, CA/UC Davis/Los Angeles Premier)

3. Peter Castillo (Costa Mesa, CA/UCLA/Newport Beach WPC)

4. William Schneider (San Clemente, CA/Stanford/Mission WPC)

5. Jonathan Carcarey (Santa Maria, CA/Pepperdine/SOCAL)

6. Gavin Appeldorn (Newport Beach, CA/Princeton/Newport Beach WPC)

7. Ryder Dodd (Long Beach, CA/UCLA/Mission WPC)

8. Ryan Ohl (Greenwich, CT/Stanford/Greenwich Aquatics)

9. Landon Akerstrom (Costa Mesa, CA/UC San Diego/SOCAL)

10. Connor Ohl (Newport Beach, CA/Newport Harbor HS/Newport Beach WPC)

11. Benjamin Liechty (Newport Beach, CA/UCLA/Newport Beach WPC)

12. Bode Brinkema (San Juan Capistrano, CA/UCLA/Mission WPC)

13. Kiefer Black (San Diego, CA/Naval Academy/La Jolla United)

14. Max Zelikov (Boca Raton, FL/Stanford/South Florida WPC)

15. Corbin Stanley (Yorba Linda, CA/Long Beach State/SOCAL)

Staff

Jack Kocur – Head Coach        

Felix Mercado – Assistant Coach      

Alex Rodriguez – Assistant Coach

Derek Clappis – Assistant Coach

2025 World Aquatics Men’s Junior World Championships Schedule (subject to change)

June 14 – USA at Croatia 1:00pm et/10:00am pt

June 15 – USA vs Hungary 11:30am et/8:30am pt

June 16 – USA vs Montenegro 11:30am et/8:30am pt

June 17 – TBD

June 18 – TBD

June 19 – TBD

June 20 – TBD

June 21 – TBD

 

LOCK HAVEN, Pa. – Gannon men’s golf standout Giovanni Delorenzi (Reggio Emilia, Italy/International School of Modena) has been selected as a PSAC Spring Top 10 honoree. The Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference announced the ten recipients early this afternoon. In addition to Delorenzi, Gannon women’s golfer Ditte Petersen also earned a spot on the coveted team.

The five men’s PSAC Top 10 honorees also included Jacob Houtz of Mansfield, Seton Hill’s Ian Korn Ryan Miller and Matthew Muthler of Lock Haven

The Top 10 Awards, selected by the PSAC’s sports information directors, recognize student-athletes who distinguish themselves in the classroom as well as in the arena of competition. The conference designates Top 10 Award winners (five men and five women) after each of the sports seasons: fall, winter, and spring.

To be a candidate for the Top 10 Awards, a student-athlete must have achieved a minimum of a 3.50 cumulative grade-point average and must be a starter or key reserve with legitimate athletic credentials.

A junior, Delorenzi is an Environmental Engineering major with a 3.968 GPA. He was named to the 2023-24 CSC Academic All-America At-Large Team as a third team selection. He helped the Golden Knights win a first-ever PSAC Championship and finish tied for first place at the NCAA Div. II Atlantic/East Regional to earn a berth at the NCAA Div. II National Championships for the fourth time in five years.

The native of Reggio Emilia, Italy previously earned PING All-Atlantic Region honors for the third straight season. He also earned first team All-PSAC honors for the second straight year and was a second team choice in 2023-24.

In 13 tournaments and 32 rounds Delorenzi finished with a 73.1 average, the second-best average on the team. He had three top-five finishes and seven top-10 finishes, including a second-place showing at the PSAC Championships while shooting a 3-under par 213. He finished tied for fifth at the NCAA Atlantic/East Regional, helping Gannon earn a berth as one of 20 teams in the National Championships. He finished at 5-over par 221 at the Regional.

Delorenzi had three rounds in the 60’s, including a low of 66 in the UC Golden Eagle Fall Invitational, and 14 rounds of par-or-better.

• The Gulf Breeze Dolphins beach volleyball team was recognized at Blue Wahoos Stadium for repeating as FHSAA state champions and national champions.
• Seniors Izzy Beech and Karmyn Ferguson threw ceremonial first pitches.
• The team achieved a 21-3 record in 2025, following a perfect 22-0 season in 2024.
• The Dolphins have reached the state tournament three consecutive years.

A little less than a month after repeating as FHSAA state champions, and staying on top the MaxPreps national rankings, the Gulf Breeze beach volleyball team has had a few busy weeks.