Scarborough Set For Battle

4th March 2010

The scene is set for a battle royale on Western Australia's Scarborough beach this weekend some of the best beach volleyball teams in the country set to battle it out for not only the WA Open crown but also last minute points that will go towards qualifying for the national championships in a weeks time.

Gavin Lewis of Volleyball WA says everything is ready to go, although a few last minute injuries have resulted in a couple of changes to the draw.  On the women's side the major news is that Lou Bawden has withdrawn from the event due to the flu.  As a result of that news Becchara Palmer will now play with good friend and fellow former Under-19's World Champion Alice Rokhamper!   They head a small list of interstate raiders with Taylor Shulz/Karley Hynes , Jen Sadler/Shae Sloane and Katie Bartoli/Mariafe Artacho the other pairs hoping to take home the WA title. 

Of the local teams, it's a foursome who are part of the West Australian AVL champion team that will be shouldering local hopes.  Jenny Day will team with former SA and Mt Lofty star Fleur Holmes, while Tara West and Michelle Perisic are the other local hope who have been perfor ming well on the WA beach tour.

On the men's side of the tournament there are numerous newsworthy points.  If you're interested in the young guns then Australian Institute of Sport pair Sam Boehm and Chris McHugh will go into the tournament as number one seeds.  Perhaps of more interest to the casual observer is the appearance of three-time Olympian Josh Slack in his new pairing with young Queenslander Isaac Kappa.  There's more news to come on that pairing so stay tuned.   

But if there's one thing we love in beach volleyball it's a bit of old-school volleyball and a bit of tradition and the big news on that front is that another three-time Olympian and absolute Aussie beach volleyball legend, Julien Prosser, will be making an appearance at the event.  No he won't be on the microphone (although we have heard he doesn't mind that role), he'll be teaming with another local WA player in Jonothan Hagues to have a crack at the title.   Another pair who have been on the tour longer than either probably cares to admit is Paul Bourne and Martin Suan.  Suan, a local, and former AIS scholarship holder and World Tour player is still a formidable force, while Bourne hasn't lost any of his ability with regular finals appearances on the Northern Beaches Volleyball Association tournaments at Manly.

As well as Prosser and Suan, local hopes will be resting on the shoulders of Michael Snart and Josh Court, who won the Under-23 Junior title earlier this summer and Ryan Glossop and Adrian Lee.

Competiton gets underway on Saturday morning with the finals scheduled for Sunday afternoon in front of the Scarborough  amphitheatre.  The weather forecast is for absolutely sensational WA weather (Sat 29, Sun 33) so there's no excuse for not stopping by to check out the hottest beach volleyball action in the country this weekend.

For more information log on to the Volleyball WA website.

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