It was a picture-perfect day at Bradford Beach in Milwaukee for the 2010 Barefoot Wine National Championships. This tourney brought together women's and men's teams from 24 local Barefoot leagues and tourneys. Teams traveled from as far as Hawaii to compete.
Check the gallery on wasatchbeachvolleyball.com for some pics from the event that will give you a sense of the environment at this great tourney. As you will see, it was very much a family affair for the Utah teams.
WBV was well-represented by Brenda and Nina and Jared and Matt. Brenda and Nina improved on their 2009 Barefoot Finals by winning their first match before falling to the number one seed from San Diego, the eventual winners on the women's side. Jared and Matt lost their first round match in two long games. While Jared and Matt didn't win the event (I know, I promised I would tell everyone that you did), Jared's hilarious trash talk established them as fan favorites.
All of the players were left wanting to play more. It would be great to see Barefoot modify the format to create a Contender's bracket so that teams would be guaranteed at least two matches.
WBV alum Mike Nelson, and his partner Lucas Black, went into the tourney seeded 4th. They advanced to the semis where they lost to the top seeds, again from San Diego, who went on to lose to the team from Austin, Texas.
Oh yeah, then there was the opportunity to watch the teams of Kerri Walsh and Rachel Wacholder and Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers. This was Kerri's first tourney appearance since the birth of their second child. Phil and Todd basically put on an exhibition in their match with the men's winners.
All the players were impressed with the sand, the setting, facilities and operations at Bradford Beach. Kudos to Todd and Joel at Bradford who stepped up in a big way to host this event after the cancellation of the Chicago AVP Tour Stop.
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