Mira Costa duo repeats as beach volleyball champs
Skylar Caputo, left, and Lan Nguyen won the IBVL Pairs Championship for the second consecutive year. Photos courtesy of IBVL
The Mustangs won the team championship the previous week with a 3-0 victory over Valencia at Annenberg Community Beach House in Santa Monica.
All three Mira Costa teams advanced from pool play that began with 28 teams, culminating with top-seeded Caputo and Nguyen defeating teammates Katrina Kernochan and Emma Smith 21-18 in the finals.
The Pepperdine-bound Caputo and Tulane-bound Nguyen defeated the No. 1 teams from San Marcos, Notre Dame Academy and El Toro in pool play and earned a first round bye in the single-elimination championship round.
They defeated the Laguna Beach team of Briana Boyd and Sabrina Stillwell 21-15 then made quick work of Saddleback Valley Christina’s Heidi Dyer and Jaelyn Green 21-9 in the semifinals.
Mira Costa’s Emma Smith, right, hits the ball past Skylar Caputo in the championship match.
Kernochan and Smith finished second in their pool making their road to the finals more difficult. The Mira Costa squad edged Oaks Christian’s top team of Shelby Livingstone/Brooke Weiner 21-19, eliminated Valencia’s No. 1 team of Emily Bible/Lindsay Knudsen 21-18 then won a hard-fought 24-22 match with Notre Dame’s top squad of Zana Muno/Savannah Slattery.
Muno and Slattery eliminated Redondo Union’s top team of Abril Bustamante and Dominique Dodd 21-19. Bustamante and Dodd were the second seeded team and had earned a first-round bye.
Lindsay Chalmers and Claudia Lemieux also represented Mira Costa, but lost to Dyer and Greene 21-15 in the opening round.
Palos Verdes’ Bryce Bark and Lorna Brandt lost 21-18 to Laguna Beach’s Boyd and Stillwell in the opening round.