Lake Stevens volleyball players earn accolades on the sand

Players from Lake Volleyball Club earned accolades this summer on the sand on the local, national and international level.

Thirteen year old Bailey Nelson had to travel all the way to Portland just to try out for the USA Beach Volleyball High Performance Team, but that didn’t stop her from winning one of 14 spots available to girls under the age of 15 nationwide.

As a result, she entered the Olympic beach volleyball team pipeline, trained in the same Chula Vista, Calif. facilities used by the likes of three time gold medalists Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh, and played in the USA High Performance Beach Volleyball Championship Tournament at historic Hermosa Beach against some of the best young beach volleyball players in the World.

Nelson wasn’t the only player from Lake VBC making an impression on the national level, Cyrene Hertzog and Janelle Groeneweg traveled to Milwaukee, Wis. to play in the USA Beach Junior Tour National championships and finished 13th out of 140 teams in the under 14 age division.

For Hertzog, the result was the highlight of a summer that included three local tournament championships with a host of different partners.

The duo of Kamarin Root and Alexis Mcklintock also qualified for the USA Beach Junior Tour Championships in the U12 division, but chose instead to compete closer to home and won a gold medal at the Subway Washington State Games to go along with their collections of tournament titles from Alki Volleyball Association, BigVolley.com and Northwest Juniors Beach Volleyball events.

Twenty five players participated in the Lake VBC Summer Sand Series and earned eight tournament championships. The club averaged seven teams competing at each of the Alki Volleyball Association tournaments held on Alki Beach in West Seattle and made up the vast majority of the teams competing at the tournaments held at the new beach volleyball facility on Jetty Island in Everett.

As fall approaches, the Lake VBC players will be heading back into the gym to prepare for the competitive club season with a new found confidence earned on the sand this summer. More information about Lake Volleyball Club is available at lakevbc.com.