Yates and Tsougrianis win provincial title
The Swift Current duo of Madison Yates and Aleni Tsougrianis won the 14U Girls Sask Volleyball Beach Provincial Championship in Regina.
“It felt really good, especially since me and my partner were the first from Swift to bring home gold in the U14 Division. I was super proud of Madison and I for working so hard throughout the year and at this tournament, which really paid off,” said Tsougrianis, 14.
“It felt pretty good because we usually play in the 16 and under division, but for this tournament we played in the 14 and under, which I think playing in the 16 and under helped us a lot. Overall the gold medal was pretty good,” added Yates, 13.
The Swift Current tandem topped their round robin group without dropping a game and then added three-set victories in the semi-final and championship match.
“Yeah we played really good in the tournament I felt,” said Yates. “We really needed to focus on the first pass because that’s the most important thing in beach. Because if we didn’t get one [a good first pass] then it would be really hard to get a hit.”
“We played really good actually. Usually at the start of our games the other team kind of got ahead of us, but we managed to come back and we won at the end,” added Tsougrianis.
The Swift Current duo began their beach volleyball careers last season during the COVID-19 pandemic without much success. This season was an entirely different story.
“We were not very good last year. We’ve come a longs ways. We did play in one tournament last year but there wasn’t a lot because of Covid. But we didn’t do too good,” said Tsougrianis.
“Probably because this year, since her older sister can drive, we go to the beach courts almost every day. So I think that helps us a lot because we usually train every day for it,” explained Yates.
“We basically lived at the beach volleyball courts. We had practices on Tuesday and Thursdays from 5-6:30 and then after that we just stayed until it was dark out,” noted Tsougrianis, who added that their coaches helped them make significant progress in the sand as well.
The two girls simply fell in love with the beach game said Yates.
“I think it’s a lot better than indoor because there’s different rules and plus you get a lot more hits because there’s only two people.”
Both athletes are entering the Swift Current Comp. High School and are looking forward to trying out for the Ardens. When they last played indoor in grade seven Yates was a middle and Tsougrianis was a setter.