On the heels of winning the Under-23 NORCECA Beach Volleyball Continental Tour last month, the USA volleyball team has done it yet again, this time beating the field in the subsequent senior tournament on Seven Mile Beach.
The Americans successfully won both the women’s and men’s championships in front of packed stands at the Security Centre NORCECA Beach Volleyball Tournament, which ran from Friday to Sunday, 11-13 Nov and featured 16 countries competing.
For the women’s USA squad, Teegan Van Gunst and Katie Lindstrom won gold after defeating Puerto Rico in the finals.
It was a chance at redemption for Lindstrom after losing to Puerto Rico last month in the Dominican Republic.
“It’s not all the time that you get to redeem yourself,” Lindstrom told the Cayman Compass.
“We definitely had some nerves, having lost against them really stung but we knew what we needed to do to beat them, and I feel like we really focus on just the two of us. We found our groove which led to [winning] today.”
Fellow American Ian Satterfield, who claimed the men’s gold along with partner Jake Urrutia, also spoke to the Compass after winning what he describes as a tournament filled with “good teams”.
“A lot of teams came out and brought their best,” Satterfield said. “We had Guatemala in our pool [and] our first set went overtime for 29 to 27; we barely squeaked that one out.”
He added, “I didn’t really think about how we were going to win the whole tournament. There are so many good teams that came to this event. Anyone can win on any given day. We just ended up executing better than the other teams.”
For the local teams, Jessica Wolfenden and partner Ileann Powery stood out from the pack, placing the highest out of the five Cayman Islands duos that entered the competition. Wolfenden and Powery placed seventh in the women’s overall standings out of 17 teams.
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