Beach Volleyball News

Inside the EVP: Chicago

by David Goodman

August 14th, 2007

This beach volleyball trip was a blast! Josh, Luke, Jeremy and I decided to take the drive.15 hours later we pulled into the beautiful downtown Marriott, thanks Ross for such a great accommodation!  After getting situated in the room, we went down to get some local restaurant info from the bellman.  We met up with team New York for lunch and beers at Rock Bottom Brewery, which later would prove to be a bad decision.  Not because of the ladies company or the brown ale, but the medium rare cheeseburger should be avoided at all cost...huh Josh?  With a little rest under our belt, we tracked north for the pre-party at The Hunt Club.  With an updated start time of 6am, due to 36 men's teams signing up for the national championship event, we were horizontal by 10pm.

 

The 5:15 am wake up call still came pretty early on Saturday morning, nothing a little Europe can't fix on the ride in.  After singing "The Final Countdown" on Lake Shore Drive, we arrived at beautiful North Ave. beach.  We soon found out that even with a start time of 6:00 am, Luke and I would be entered into a qualifier match to get into the 28-team draw.  Josh and Jeremy made it in on points b/c of their 2nd place finish in the Virginia Beach stop.  Luke and I faced a solid defensive team of Jim Vanderwall and Ben Mol in the play in match; first serve flew at 6:30 am.  Our day ended fairly early with a 25-18 loss in that game.  Josh and Jeremy had a forfeit in their first match and then went on to play a 3 game thriller against the top seeded team of Wayne Scott and Steve Hinds.  After a close loss in the third game, Team Virginia Beach was sent to the contender's bracket to face another solid team.  With Josh battling sickness, they were matched up against Ryan Stuntz and Adam Stempel for a chance to continue.  Ryan and Adam won this match and continued on to the semis, pretty amazing as they were seeded one higher than Luke and I and had to play the early quali match.

 

Team Chicago, Mike Dauernheim and Dan Schultz, played extremely well all day and ousted Ryan and Adam in the semis before a large crowd cheering on the hometown team.  Team Detroit, Evan Engle and Pete Goers, defeated Mark Paaluhi and Keawe Adolpho in the other semifinals match.  Keawe was coming off a Toyota Pro Tour win with Matt Heath in Ocean City, MD.  This set up a thrilling final between Team Detroit and Team Chicago.

 

As the finals started, we were enjoying a few cocktails up at Castaways.  Even from there, you could see the thrilling and controversial action as Mike and Dan took the first game 21-17.  Once we headed down to center court, we walked up as the referee was making yet another terrible call.  We asked Mike Dauernheim about it, "Dealing with officials is all part of the game.  We were frustrated with some calls made against us but I don't think it had any effect on the outcome of the match.  In the heat of the moment you just need to get some things off your chest and let the official know how you feel.  All respectfully of course.".  The second game Pete and Evan battled back and won 21-19, mostly with tough points coming at key times late in the game.  Pete Goers and Evan Engle won game 3 of the finals 15-13 and Team Detroit captured the EVP National Championship title. 

 

We caught up with the nicest guy in beach volleyball, Mike Dauernheim, to ask about his competition in the finals, "I have played against Pete for years now, winning some and losing some.  The guy is phenomenal, one of the best all around players that I have played against.  I think he has really brought Evan's game up a notch as well, and it shows with their two big tournament wins the last few weeks.  Congrats to my partner Dan Schultz for winning player of the year.  He helped me win that title last year so I was glad I didn't completely let him down this year."

 

Thanks again to Ross, Carlos, Rocky and all the EVP staff for a great time in Chicago!

 

And if you go to Chicago, you must eat the stuffed pizza at Giordanos...it's worth the wait!

 

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