Hawaii’s Seth Moniz and Brisa Hennessey won all three of their heats to advance to the semifinals of their respective divisions at the NSSA National Championships on Thursday in Huntington Beach, Calif.
Moniz is competing in the open men’s division, while Hennessey is in the open women’s division. Hennessey and Hawaii’s Moana Jones will surf against each other on Friday.
Hawaii’s Logan Bediamol, competing in the open junior division, also won all three of his heats Thursday. He will be joined in the quarterfinals by fellow local surfers Cody Young, Finn McGill, Barron Mamiya and Kainehe Hunt.
In the open boys division, Hawaii’s Brodi Sale, Ocean Macedo and Eli Hanneman advanced to the semifinals.
Advancing to the semifinals of the open girls division were Hawaii’s Summer Macedo, Julie Nishimoto and Gabrielle Bryan.
Hawaii’s Makana Franzmann, Levin Young, Ty Simpson-Kane and Kai Martin reached the semifinals of the open mini grom division.
The competition will conclude Friday.
Hawaii added to AVP developmental tour
The Association of Volleyball Professionals has expanded its AVPNext, a developmental beach volleyball tour, to include Hawaii.
The Pacific zone has five events scheduled, the last being at Queen’s Beach on July 25. The Hawaii stop is partnering with Spike and Serve run by former U.S. Olympic beach player Kevin Wong.
The winners of the Pacific zone will join those from seven others from across the country to earn automatic berths in August’s Manhattan Beach Open, the longest running pro beach volleyball tournament in the world.
Registration for the Waikiki tournament is available at spikeandserve.com. Men’s and women’s teams of all skill levels are eligible to compete with the minimum age requirement of 14.
Information on the national series is available at avpnext.avp.com.
Husslein on Guam’s basketball team
Former Mid-Pacific basketball standout Kyle Husslein will represent his native island of Guam at the XV Pacific Games, which open Friday in Papua New Guinea.
Husslein, an all-ILH second-team selection as a senior for the Owls, was a reserve guard as a freshman for the University of Redlands last season. Guam, which won the silver medal in 2011, opens pool play with Tahiti, the bronze medalist four years ago in New Caledonia.
Bourne, Hyden out at world beach event
Honolulu’s Tri Bourne and partner John Hyden were eliminated in Thursday’s quarterfinals of the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships at The Hague, Netherlands.
Bourne, an Academy of the Pacific graduate, and Hyden loss to top-seeded Reinder Nummerdor and Christiaan Varenhorst of the Netherlands, 23-21, 23-21. After Thursday’s play, Bourne was ranked No. 1 in scoring (9.00 pps) and hitting percentage (.437).
