Young South Bay beach volleyball players had impressive performances in Hermosa Beach last weekend at the AAU West Coast Junior Olympics, highlighted by local teams defending their gold-medal status.
After winning the Boys 16-and-under championship last year as 14-year-olds, the five-year partnership of Manhattan Beach’s Luke Grafton and Dane Johnson remained golden with a 21-15 win over Marcus Partain (Pacific Palisades) and John Schwengel (Santa Monica).
The duo recently won gold medals at the International Children’s Games in Alkmaar, Netherlands.
“We had momentum coming off our win in the Netherlands and were familiar with these guys from previous tournaments,” Grafton said. “It means a lot to win the Junior Olympics twice in a row.”
Johnson felt his team’s strategy paid off.
“Marcus (Partain) likes to bang the ball so we decided to serve him and pull back to have two guys on defense,” Johnson said. “This is a huge win for us. Playing in front of a crowd like this really gets us pumped up.”
Grafton and Johnson are entering their sophomore years in high school and keeping the Mira Costa-Loyola indoor volleyball rivalry alive with Grafton playing for the Cubs and Johnson staying local as a member of the Mustangs.
The longtime friends have had a busy summer playing indoor and on the sand. Their next quest is to qualify for the CBVA Cal Cup that will be held Saturday, Aug. 29 in Manhattan Beach.
Also successfully defending their Junior Olympic titles were Abril Bustamante (Redondo Beach) and Skylar Caputo (Manhattan Beach) who won the Girls 18U crown with a 28-20 victory over 2013 16U champions Grace Campbell (Manhattan Beach) and Mia Merino (Tustin).
The opportunity for a repeat almost didn’t happen when Bustamante was selected to travel with the USA Volleyball U21 Women’s Team.
“Winning back to back AAU Junior Olympic championships was a goal of Abril and mine since we won it last year,” Caputo said. “I was stoked for Abril when she had been selected to travel for the USA U21 Women’s Team and compete in the NORCECA qualifier. After hearing that the event had been cancelled, I was bummed for her but happy we would have to opportunity to play in the AAU Junior Olympic championships again.”
Other local medalists included two teams from Manhattan Beach.
Ava Gallien and Leah Kelly took home silver medals in the Girl’s 12U division and Kelli Barry and Lea Ungar lost a hard-fought 21-19 battle in the Girl’s 15U championship game.
For complete results, visit aaubeach.org.
