Amidst the backdrop of waves crashing and hundreds of beachgoers enjoying the sand and surf, the National Volleyball League made its debut at Zuma Beach last weekend. As part of the Malibu Surf and Sports Festival, 64 of the best men’s and women’s professional beach volleyball teams came to Malibu to determine a champion after two days of action.
Braidy Halverson (Grass Valley, Calif.) and Adam Roberts (Myrtle, Calif.) won their first-ever tournament championship by going undefeated (6-0) and defeating Jonathan Acosta and Ty Tramblie in the men’s final 21-14, 16-21, 15-13. Halverson and Roberts split a winner’s check of $10,000.
“Zuma is a beautiful place to play and right now I’m really loving it,” Halverson said. “You can’t beat it when you win.”
This is the first year that Halverson and Roberts have played together and Malibu was only their fifth match competing as a team.
This is the second event on a six-city tour for the National Volleyball League. Halverson and Roberts were seeded 9th, and they didn’t disappoint family and friends who came out to see them win their first title.
“We just clicked this weekend and we played well,” Roberts said. “We trained hard in the offseason and it all paid off today.”
The most surprising match of the tournament came in the first round when the top-seeded team of Matt Prosser and John Mayer (a 2005 Pepperdine University graduate) lost to an unranked opponent. Prosser and Mayer rebounded to win six consecutive matches only to lose to Halverson and Roberts in the semifinals 21-11, 21-18. The tournament was a double-elimination format.
In the women’s championship match, top-seeded Jenny Kropp (Hawthorne, Calif.) and Whitney Pavlik (Laguna Hills, Calif.) defeated Emily Day and Heather Hughes a 21-12, 21-17 to complete an undefeated march to the title. Kropp and Pavlik also split a $10,000 winner’s check.
The National Volleyball League distributed $75,000 amongst its players and the tournament was deemed a success by the league’s CEO and founder, Albert Hannemann.
“I absolutely love Malibu. Everything went smoothly,” Hannemann said. “It was a great local event for everyone to come and enjoy. Malibu welcomed us with open arms and it went great.
“Those guys [Halverson and Roberts] battled all weekend,” Hannemann added. “They went undefeated and it was the first time either one of them had reached a final. It’s nice to be able to let these guys live their dreams playing volleyball. It was really cool for them and it was a great event.”