The wait was worth it and the games were nothing short of fantastic! Thursday morning at 6:00am was when the Volleyball BC crew and Legend Jim Clive began setting up feature centre court, along with 12 other courts to host 64 adult teams & 25+ youth teams in the Vancouver Open Beach Volleyball Tournament. 

The weather originally forecasted the weekend to be cloudy with a mix of sun and showers, but the crews and athletes hoped for the best and the weather gods showed in favour of the sun! The stands were packed from noon onwards, our Roxy sponsored beverage garden had constant line-ups, and seats filled to watch the feature centre court. With great music and rowdy emcees, we had audiences from the boardwalk stand on logs tip-toeing to watch the action!

The first day of competition (Friday) brought teams who qualified for the last 4 wildcard berths into the 32-team main draw. Saturday saw 32 Men’s and Women’s teams dig and spike it out on the sand to leave only 8 teams remaining in each division. Sunday cleared up all debates and crowned 1 deserving men’s and women’s team as the 2016 Vancouver Open Champions.

Aside from having their names solidified in Vancouver Open history, the champions received  a giant cheque marked for $3,300!

Men’s Playoff Notes:

The Final was a battle of Ontario teams and although there were no local athletes to cheer for, the match showcased high energy action at the net and around the courts as Jake “the real deal” MacNeil showed just about every physical expression that he could to the crowd with each one of his plays!

#13 seed Jake Macneil and Lucas Coleman lost in the 2nd round on Saturday to eventual 3rd place Caverly/Galloway after climbing back (defeating #1 seed Krause/Russell) to win 5 straight matches in the backdoor playoffs to reach the Open Finals.

Both tournament BC favourites Hatch/Zbyszewski  & Caverly/Galloway won their first 4 games on Saturday, but lost in semi-finals and had to face each other for the Bronze match. Hatch has won the Open twice, while Zbyszewski has one to his name.

#9 Grabovsky/Kazhamiaka lost in the 3rd round on Saturday and finished Sunday winning 5 straight matches over to reach the Finals.Grabovsky/Kazhamiaka took the finals in 3 sets (21-15, 20-22, 15-13).

Breakdown of Men’s playoff-seeded draw found here.

Women’s Playoffs Notes:

After an exciting match in the 2015 Open finals, #2 seed Camille Saxton/Rachel Cockrell reached the 2016 finals once again to face on #1 seed twins Megan and Nicole McNamara. The match was great to watch with elite level spiking from Saxton/Cockrell going up against composed digging and placement shots by the McNamara’s.

#4 seed Wooding/Chow, the only pair that took the #1 seed to 3 sets before the semi-final rounds, lost to the McNamara twins in the 4th round. and had to face another set of twins in the #30 seeded Josie and Kearley Abbott to get into the Bronze match. They finished with Bronze against #3 seed and two-time Open champion Liz Cordonier and Caleigh Whitaker.

High Schoolers and #30 seed Josie and Kearley Abbott had an impressive run at the Open as they went through a 5 game win streak defeating #19 Calvert/Farr, #13 Chartier/Chioccarello, #22 Scott/Pelletier, and #7 Stone/Wiskar #8 Cowley/Zbyszewski, but eventually losing to  #4 Wooding/Chow.

The McNamaras edged out the match against Saxton/Cockrell 2-1 (21-17, 14-21, 15-11), winning for an Open record 3rd straight year – 3 Peat so they call it.

Breakdown of Women’s playoff-seeded draw found here.

Aside From Volleyball Action

The 25th celebration of the Vancouver Open at Kits Beach showcased many other activities and entertainment. We gave out tonnes of prizes based on trivia’s and crowd participation, we invited the fans to play in our annual Skyball contest, and we even had a kids’ dancing competition! The 2016 Vancouver Open – Presented by Dunbar Cycles was such a hit this year. We can’t wait to host it for everyone again next year!

Video Recap:

Big thanks to all our sponsors for helping us make the Vancouver Open another memorable event.

Read about Friday’s Qualifiers Recap here.
Read about Saturday’s Playoffs Recap here.
Find more information on the Vancouver Open here.

Looking for more photos? Check out our photo website!