Hermosa Wave Easy Reader
Costa grads dominate AVP season opener at Huntington
While the Mira Costa boys volleyball team was capturing the season-ending CIF Division II championship last weekend, Costa alum were dominating the AVP season-opening tournament at Huntington Beach. Sunday’s men’s final featured Sydney gold medallist and Costa grad Eric Fonoimonana with his new partner Dax Holdren, facing Costa grad Canyon Ceman and Mike Whitmarsh.In the women’s finals Costa grads Holly McPeak and Barbra Fontana squared off against one another with their new, respective partners Elaine Youngs and Dianne DeNecochea.Ceman and Whitmarsh reached the finals by defeating sentimental favorite Karch Kiraly and Brent Doble 21-8, 21-23, 15-13. Kiraly, 41, the sport’s first gold medallist (Atlanta, 1996), missed most of last year due to injuries. Fonoimoana and Holdren also had tough semi final matches, winning two of three against Kevin Wong and Stein Metzger 21-17, 19-21, 15-11. In the finals, Fonoimoana showed evidence that his last year’s partner swapping is over when he and Holdren swept Ceman and Whitmarsh 21-18 and 21-14.The women’s finals also saw a partners’ realignment. Youngs, who played most of last year with Fontana, joined McPeak while Fontana was recovering from a back injury. That led McPeak’s expected partner Dianne DeNecochea of San Diego to choose Fontana as her partner. The pairings worked well enough for both teams to reach the finals, where McPeak and Youngs picked up their 57th and 15th tournament wins, respectively, 21-18, 20-22, 15-9.While respecting Mira Costa’s volleyball tradition, the newly reorganized AVP has introduced a new policy that Costa’s future female volleyball players will surely appreciate, and the boys should at least understand. McPeaks’ and Youngs’s $14,500 prize was the exact same amount Fonoimoana and Holdren received.