Santa Barbarans Dillan Bennett and Miles Evans earned their California Beach Volleyball Association AAA rating by finishing third at the Marine Street AAA Tournament on Saturday in Manhattan Beach.
Bennett-Evans were beaten in the semifinals by eventual champions and AVP players John Moran and Everett Matthews (28-17). The local team reached the final four by knocking off Kyle Stevenson-Alex Jones (28-24) and Santa Barbaran Ric Cervantes-Parker Kalmbach (28-25). They suffered only one loss in pool play, falling to tourney runners-up Curt Toppel and Jesse Rambis.
Bennett and Evans are both Dos Pueblos alums. Evans, 22, plays outside hitter for the UCSB men?s team. Prior to UCSB he ?was a standout player at SBCC. Bennett, 20, is the boys volleyball coach at Laguna Blanca School, a coach with the Santa Barbara Volleyball Club, and recently was named a coach with USA Volleyball beach program.
