Started in the Baby Boomer generation, the Santa Barbara Open men’s and women’s beach volleyball tournaments will have a feeling of nostalgia when competition begins on Sunday at East Beach.
Regarded as one of the most popular tournaments on the Southern California parks and rec circuit of opens in the 60s, 70s and 80s, this year’s 75th edition of the men’s event and 72nd for the women will have an expanded field that includes past champions, former local high school and college standouts and several current college women’s players that played in the NCAA tournament.
“This weekend’s event will be one of the largest draws in quite a while with 30 teams for the women and 30 for the men,” said tournament director and beach volleyball Hall of Famer Dane Selznick of the California Beach Volleyball Association. He noted that his mother, now 91, played in the first Santa Barbara Open for women in 1953 and placed fifth.
The men’s competition was first held in 1950. Hall of Famer Gene Selznick (Dane’s father) is the all-time winner with nine titles. For the women, Hall of Fame player and coach Kathy Gregory won seven open titles at East Beach.
The traditional Fourth of July weekend tournament, which has a $2,000 prize pool in each gender, is part of Santa Barbara’s annual Semana Nautica Sports Festival.
The top-seeded teams are Gianna Guinasso/Taylor Stover for the women and David Updegrove/Zac Pittard for the men. Both pairs have local ties — Stover is a coach at Providence High School, while Pittard played indoor volleyball at SBCC.
Guinasso/Stover have played together in seven events this year, posting three third places, three fifths and a ninth. They came in third in their most recent tournament at Santa Monica Ocean Park.
Updegrove and Pittard are the No. 2 and 3 players on the CBVA ranking of “AAA” men’s players. Updegrove won a tournament in Santa Cruz, and Pittard captured a title in Ocean Beach in San Diego.
Defending women’s champion Clara Stowell of Stanford is back and seeded third with Cal Poly’s Erin Inskeep. Stowell won last year with local and Stanford teammate Taylor Wilson.
Local beach volleyball will be well represented on Sunday.
On the women’s side, San Marcos High senior Cora Loomer and partner Kara Namimatsu, a senior at Redondo Union, are the No. 2 seed. They’re coming off a fifth-place finish at the Mission Beach Open in San Diego. The pair earned their AAA rating by winning the Newland Beach AA in Huntington Beach.
Namimatsu helped Redondo Union clinch the CIF-SS Division 1 team title in the spring. She and her partner won the deciding match for a 3-2 triumph over rival Mira Costa.
Also among the top-10 seeds are local players Katie Spieler, Portia Sherman and Jessyca Beksa. Spieler, a Dos Pueblos alum, is playing with her cousin Torrey Van Winden. Seeded fifth, the pair won back-to-back Santa Barbara titles in 2014-15 and last year went on an incredible run, finishing seventh at the prestigious AVP Manhattan Beach Open.
Sherman, a DP alum who is seeded sixth with Stanford’s Logan Tusher, is coming off a fantastic college season at Cal. She and Emma Donley set the school record for wins at the No. 1 position and total wins for a season with 28, helping the Golden Bears advance to the NCAA Tournament. They were named American Volleyball Coaches Association All-Americans.
After the college season, the Sherman/Donley represented Team USA and won an international tournament, capturing the Under-23 NORCECA Continental Tour event in the Dominican Republic with a perfect 5-0 record.
Sherman/Tusher were runners-up at the 2023 Santa Barbara Open.
The No. 8 seed is Santa Barbara High alum Jessyca Beksa and Jacqueline DiSanto. The pair played together in last year’s tournament and placed 16th after finishing second at an open at San Diego’s Ocean Beach.
Other local teams include Emma Zuffelato/Faith Bartlett, Leah Russell/Morgan Gatzlaff, Hannah Rogers/Susie Lloyd, Evyn Miller/Wynter Thorne-Thomsen, Anastasia Kunz/Adlee Van Winden, sisters Ellie Gamberdella/Josie Gamberdella, Jayden Jones/Krystal Vander Ark, Danica Minnich/Grace Higgins and Sam Fallon/Leah Curtin.
Local men’s teams seeded in the top-10 include Jordon Dyer/Kirill Rudenko at No. 5, former champion Ric Cervantes and Jonah Seif at No. 8 and Dylan Foreman/Troy Fitzgerald in the 10 spot. Cervantes won with Will Rottman in 2023 and finished third in 2022 with Seif.
Ryan Feller, last year’s champion, is seeded 15th with new partner Adam Epstein.
Also competing are Nate Rogers of Santa Ynez and former high school teammate Andrew Nielsen; Dos Pueblos beach coach Nate Holmes with Rowan Peake; former San Marcos teammates Luke Walker and Hansen Streeter; Shane Cervantes with Mike Stewart (last year’s runner-up); San Marcos alum Jack Wilson with Luke Powers; Daniel Brown/Ben Brown; Ziggy Peake/Matt Benko; Mikey Denver/Cameron Earls.
Games will be played on eight courts in front of the Bath House and four East Beach courts. Pool play begins at 9 a.m., followed by single-elimination playoffs.
