Savvy Simo
5-10
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (June 22, 2022) – The U.S. topped the podium at last week’s Balikesir Futures as Megan Kraft/Savvy Simo won gold and Brook Bauer/Katie Horton took silver at the event in western Turkey.
The medals were the first on the Beach Pro Tour for all four athletes, and the first international medals of any kind for Kraft, Bauer and Horton. Simo won bronze on the NORCECA Tour earlier this year.
Kraft/Simo went a perfect 5-0 after starting the tournament in the main draw. They won 10 of 11 sets played. Bauer/Horton began the tournament in the qualifier, where they eliminated fellow Americans Jade Race/Lydia Smith. The only sets Bauer/Horton lost were to Kraft/Simo in the gold medal match.
In the men’s draw, Adam Roberts/Cody Caldwell reached the quarterfinals and tied for fifth. It’s the pair’s best international finish together.
KWJ to HOF
BNT legend Kerri Walsh Jennings has already earned seemingly every accolade under the sun, but she’s not done adding to the list. The four-time Olympic medalist will be inducted into the International Volleyball Hall of Fame on October 22, 2022.
She’ll join longtime partner Misty May-Treanor in the Hall; May-Treanor was enshrined in 2016.
Walsh Jennings is one of two women in the world with four Olympic medals in volleyball. She won three golds with May-Treanor – Athens 2004, Beijing 2008 and London 2012 – and a bronze with April Ross in Rio 2016. She made her Olympic debut in 2000 with the women’s indoor team, joining Danielle Scott as American volleyball athletes with five Olympic appearances.
Todd Rogers, who also won gold in Beijing 2008, was inducted into the IVHOF last year.
Coming up This Week
U.S. beach athletes will be in two tournaments this weekend: a Beach Pro Tour Futures event in Bialystok, Poland, and a King of the Court competition in Hamburg, Germany. In Poland, Kraft rejoins partner Emily Stockman, and the two are the tournament’s top seed. Roberts/Caldwell also have a main draw berth, while Bauer/Horton, Molly Turner/Jessica Gaffney and Melissa Fuchs Powell/Tambre Nobles will begin in the women’s qualifier
Race/Smith and Corinne Quiggle/Sarah Schermerhorn will both compete in the King of the Court women’s competition. Troy Field will join forces with the Netherlands’ Stefan Boermans for the men’s.
Play at the Bialystok Futures begins at midnight Pacific Thursday, June 23, while Quiggle/Schermerhorn take the sand in Hamburg at 7:30 a.m. Pacific.
AVCA Fall Collegiate Beach Championships Announced
The American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) announced a new beach volleyball championship planned for November 4-6, 2022. Sixty-four women’s collegiate pairs and four men’s collegiate teams will compete for a fall national title in John Hunt Park in Huntsville, Alabama.
This tournament was made possible by recent NCAA legislation allowing for multi-day beach volleyball events during the fall. Spring is still the sport’s championship season, but collegiate beach athletes may now get valuable competitive match experience in the fall. These tournaments will not be team events, but tournaments for individual pairs.
