A hectic summer of international beach volleyball has concluded with a silver medal for Tsawwassen's Nicole and Megan McNamara at the Youth Olympic Games.
The 17-year-old twins dropped a three-set heartbreaker (21-17, 13-21, 14-16) to the Brazilian team of Patricia Silva Ramos and Edura Santos Lisboa on Tuesday in Nanjing, China. The competition marked the third time in less than a month the McNamaras had represented Canada on the world stage.
They were 17th at the Federation Internationale De Volleyball (FIVB) Under 21 World Championships in Cyprus, then earned bronze a week later at the FIVB U19 Worlds in Portugal.
"We are very proud of what we accomplished here in Nanjing. It's an amazing feeling to win a silver medal for Canada," said Nicole.
The girls needed to earn a last chance qualifying berth at a tournament back in April in Puerto Rico just for the opportunity to represent Canada in China. However, they promptly established themselves as one of the teams to beat with a dominating run to the gold medal match.
The McNamaras rolled through pool play with wins over Ecuador (21-14, 21-14), Namibia (21-10, 21-4), Latvia (21-19, 14-21, 15-9), Kazakhstan (21-12, 21-9) and Italy (21-15, 21-18) to earn the No. 1 seed for the championship
round. The Grade 12 South Delta secondary students then defeated Thailand (21-17, 21-12) in the round of 16, before rallying for hard-fought three set win (14-21, 21-18, 15-8) over the United States in the quarter-finals.
On Tuesday afternoon, the girls defeated Germany (21-18, 21-18), before returning to the court six hours later to take on Brazil. The
44 minute match was played in humid conditions with the temperature at 26C for a 9 p.m. local start time - in front of 700 spectators.
"The whole experience of the Games is something we will never forget," said Megan, "and special thanks to (teammates) Jake (MacNeil) and Andrew (Richards), our coach Mischa (Harris), and
team manager Marc Stromme for making it even more memorable."
The McNamaras made a verbal commitment last fall to continue their beach volleyball careers at UCLA in September 2015. They are expected to play their final season of high school indoor volleyball with the two-time defending provincial AAAA champion South Delta Sun Devils.
