Mixed bag for Kiwi beach volleyballers on day one of Commonwealth Youth Games

The New Zealand men’s and women’s beach volleyball teams were in action on day one of the Bahamas Commonwealth Youth Games.

The men’s team of Tyran Gillespie from Tauranga and Keegan Joe from New Plymouth played a hard-fought game against England. The pair drew level at one point in the first set but eventually went down 21-18. The Kiwis started strong in the second to earn a small lead but were unable to hold it, as England pulled away for a 21-13 victory, to win the match 2-sets to nil.

“We played our best volleyball in that first set”, Tyran said, “the second set we struggled on serve receive and didn’t play tidy volleyball”.

The men now face a must win match against tournament heavyweights Jamaica tomorrow.

“We’re going to keep it clean, play tidy volleyball and put a little bit of service pressure on and hopefully it’ll go our way”, Tyran said.

Above: Keegan Joe (left) and Tyran Gillespie

The women’s team came out firing in their morning game against St Lucia. Ella Akkerman from Tauranga and Jasmine Milton from Whangarei only dropped four points to win the first set 21-4. The Kiwi duo kept the tempo up in the second set for a convincing 21-5 win.

In the afternoon the pair took on Rawanda under the hot sun, winning in 2 sets, 21-10 followed by 21-19.

“The comfortable win to start off was a good and bad thing because it didn’t fully warm us up to the standard of other games”, said Ella Akkerman.

“This afternoon we had a couple of hiccups but we pushed through to get the win and will improve for our next game”.

They’ll face Trinidad and Tobago in their last pool game tomorrow.

“We need to play our game but also be able to adapt to how the other team’s playing,” added Jasmine Milton.

The New Zealand team will attend the opening ceremony tonight with Kiwi swimmers, cyclists, boxers and beach volleyballers all competing tomorrow.

Above: Jasmine Milton and Ella Akkerman with their Rawanda competitors