The Dos Pueblos team of Chloe Hoffman and Lucy Speier advanced to the final four of the inaugural CIF-SS Beach Volleyball Pairs Championships on Tuesday in Huntington Beach.
Hoffman/Speier went 3-0 in first-round pool-play games and then swept two matches in the second round to reach the semifinals. They’ll faced Savanna Lau and Tenon Rosenthal of Mira Costa in a best-of-three semifinal match on Wednesday at 12 p.m.
The other semifinal has Mira Costa’s Charlie Fuerbringer/Erin Inskeep playing Alex Adishian/Bella Adishian of Harvard Westlake.
A total of four local teams played in the Pairs Championships, with the other three (Santa Barbara, San Marcos and Providence) getting knocked out after going 2-1 and finishing second in their first-round pools.
Santa Barbara’s Shae Delany/Gracie Meinzer defeated teams from Oak Park (28-25) and Long Beach Poly (28-22) and fell against Alexandra Leal/Jady Mape of Oaks Christian in the Pool 5 finale, 28-19.
“We lost the must-win final set in the pool play to a strong serving Oaks Christian team,” said Santa Barbara coach Kristin Hempy.
“Gracie and Shae had a great season, they grew a lot together and individually. I’m proud of their performance and happy that they were able to represent SBHS at this inaugural CIF Pairs Championship.”
The San Marcos partners of Lily Blankenhorn and Riley Green were an alternate team that got into the tournament and finished second in Pool 4. They defeated Royal (28-16) and Lakewood (28-16) and lost to the Adishian sisters of Harvard Westlake, 28-21.
“We came up against a well-tuned, flawless Harvard Westlake team that we battled,” said San Marcos coach Tina Brown. “The score was tied at 14, then we got on the bad side and gave up five points. We went back and forth, but they ended up winning.”
The Providence pair of Avala Elwood/Jane Krautmann finished behind Sage Hill in Pool 8. Their wins came against St. Joseph of Lakewood 28-10) and El Dorado (28-14), and the lost to Sage Hill (28-16).
Hoffman/Speier dominated their first-round opponents, routing Artesia (28-8), Long Beach Wilson (28-15), and Burbank-Providence (28-7).
In the second round, they defeated Chloe Pravednikov/Kate Eckenrode of Long Beach Wilson, 21-17, 21-12, and Teagan Glenn/Anabel Kotzakov of Newport Harbor, 21-15, 21-17.
“I thought we played very consistent,” said DP coach Mike FitzGerald. “We sided out at a very high percentage which allowed us to serve aggressive and put teams in trouble.”