BVAW Alcudia Beach Volley Ball Tournament 2015

Couples registered their team on the Thursday were given their competition vests (the hottest accessory of the weekend) and then games proceeded throughout the weekend, the mixed couples tournament on Friday, women’s and men’s running Saturday and Sunday and the finals of all categories kicking off (spiking off? Volleying off?) at 14.00 on Sunday.

Beach Volley Around the World (BVAW) is an amateur sports organization dedicated to the promotion of beach volleyball around the world. They organize camps, competitions, events and holidays in great beach locations around the world from Europe to USA and South America, with each event attracting competitors from over 35 different countries looking to show off their beach volleyball prowess. BVAW was working in conjunction with the Mission Bambino Foundation and their Childrens Heart project which strives towards reducing child mortality due to heart disease and who had fundraising and awareness stations at the event.

Sunday saw standing room only at centre court as the finals got under way, starting with the mixed tournament, which featured two Italian teams whom for the sake of confusion we will call Italian Red V’s Italian Blue. Blue team showed themselves to be much more serious from the start warming up with aggression and arguing the score within five minutes of play. Laid back Red team took an early lead and stayed ahead in the first set taking it at 21-18. Blue came back with a vengeance in the 2nd and powered through to win it at 21-7 thanks in most part to some serious power spikes from the oldest guy on the court. Red seemed pretty tired but pulled themselves together for the third set where each team fought valiantly for every point leading to long rallies and tricky hits, the score stayed even throughout the set until Red took the win at 15-13, making it the most exciting final of the day and the only one to go to 3 sets.

Up next was the Women’s final featuring Team Mallorca Vs Team Australia. Team Aussie had height and power on their side from the start, not to mention matching bikinis, vests and head bands in their countries trademark green, but that aside the first set was pretty even with the score going one way then the other before Mallorca stole the win at 21-19. The win spurred them on in the second set where they took and easy lead from the start, Australia called a time out at 10-4 but it didn’t save them and although they held Mallorca off for 3 match points, they lost it in the end and it was a win for Mallorca in straight sets 21-19, 21- 15.

Men’s final was up last and we geared up to watch Mallorca do battle with Venuzuela. With power serves and a whole lot of dude sweat, the two teams tied to half way through the first set when Mallorca started to pull away and then took the first set 21-18. Neck and neck at the start of the second set the volleys got longer and longer with one epic rally being played with an elbow hit and another being cut short with a Venezuelan a going down in pain and a medic being called. After much stretching and thigh rubbing he was back on his feet to much applause by the crowd. The score was at 7-6 Mallorca but the injury seemed to throw Venuzuela and Mallorca stormed ahead to 14-7 before they started to fight back. The crowd got behind the underdog as they pulled it back to 17-16 but Mallorca couldn't be stopped and they took the game in straight sets 21-18 21-16.

Presentations were made to the top six teams in each category and the obligatory champagne shower was a fitting end to the weekend. A chilled and friendly vibe had prevailed throughout the event, any one who wanted to watch the games, enjoy the atmosphere or after game beach party was welcome to come along. When the dozens of courts that had been set up along the beach weren’t in use by the competition, they were open to anybody on the beach who fancied trying their hand, BVAW thereby doing a great job of recruiting future competitors.

A great weekend was had by everyone involved, not one sore loser was spotted and now we look forward to the next event in France and the possibility of an extra Mallorcan one in Palmanova this year, we await more information…