The East Beach Boys Volleyball Club finished in a tie for third place in the Bronze Bracket at the 2011 Southern California Volleyball Association Boys Invitational.
In the club’s first season, the East Beach 16-1’s finished 27th out of 60 teams from across the nation.
Club director and head coach Dillan Bennett praised his team on a solid defensive effort and staying aggressive over all three days.
“The boys played hard all weekend. Being an undersized team, we have to be very consistent on the defensive side. Our hard work in practice really paid off this weekend; especially against the top two teams in the tournament.”
East Beach had a tough road through the tournament, having to face the top two seeds in the tournament: No. 1 Team 949 (who won the tournament) and No. 2 SCVC (who took second).
“Being a low seed, we knew that we would have to play some very tough teams this weekend and we were excited. Our boys look forward to tough challenges each time we step on the court. 949 and SCVC were our toughest challenges all year and we stayed competitive in both matches, even taking a game off of 949.”
Coach Bennett praised the play of Jackson Wopat, a sophomore at Dos Pueblos High School.
“Jackson has improved so much over the last four months. He was one of the biggest blocks in the tournament this weekend. If he keeps working hard, he will have a bright future in this sport.”
Bennett also gave credit to his two main passers Niko Plesons and Drew Kenyon, both who will play at DP this spring.
“We decided as a coaching staff that we would run a serve receive that not many other teams can do. Since we have two very good passers in Drew and Niko, we didn’t need to use the libero position as other teams do. Instead of having three passers on the court, we used two and our offense became much more fluid and cut down on unforced errors caused by confusion in the backcourt. Being able to do something like this, you have to have two great passers. Drew and Niko did a great job this weekend.
East Beach is currently ranked 24th overall in the SCVA standings. The boys club season will resume in May after the high school season is complete.
do work son! #6