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Beach Volleyball takes over Sylvan Lake

On Saturday, July 9 – some of Alberta’s elite beach volleyball players made the trek into Sylvan Lake.
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Volleyball Alberta held their first beach event in Sylvan Lake on July 9.

Volleyball has spiked into Central Alberta.

On Saturday, July 9 some of Alberta’s elite beach volleyball players made the trek into Sylvan Lake to try their luck against the best the province has to offer.

Organizer Jenna Smith was happy with the turnout at the pier for the second event of the summer put on by Volleyball Alberta.

“We have four events throughout the year,” she said. “We had one in Edmonton, two here (Sylvan Lake) and one in Calgary in August.”

The event on July 9 had seven beach volleyball courts being packed by several teams in both a male and female’s division. The athletes are ranked based on an ongoing system that accumulates over time, according to Smith.

“They get ranked according to tournaments both this year and last year,” she adding that anyone can enter and there is plenty of returning players and there are plenty of “new faces, which is always nice to see.”

“There is a lot of ex university players and current indoor university players,” Smith said, “There are also a lot of people who strictly play beach and play in beach leagues during the week.”

The winners of the day received cash prizes and all who attended were invited to the social afterwards at Chief’s on the lakeshore.

According to Smith, this event was a precursor to the much larger event The Jonathon Walsh Memorial Tournament on July 16-17, also at the Sylvan Lake Pier.

“This is one of our biggest tournaments,” Smith said. “We expect around 30 teams for both divisions.

“It is a really good event and is played in honour of a really good volleyball player that passed away five years ago.”

She added that the event is really good volleyball to watch and that the best competitors come out.

reporter@sylvanlakenews.com