NAWILIWILI — Krista Galdida of Maui said Roni Marley of Kauai is a pretty strong beach volleyball player Friday after the duo took their opening match at the Dinosaur Beach Volleyball tournament at Kalapaki Beach. “It’s a different game with
NAWILIWILI — Krista Galdida of Maui said Roni Marley of Kauai is a pretty strong beach volleyball player Friday after the duo took their opening match at the Dinosaur Beach Volleyball tournament at Kalapaki Beach.
“It’s a different game with side out scoring,” Galdida said. “This is also the first time I’ve played with Roni. I think we’re pretty solid since she’s a good player and I’m solid under pressure.”
Joy Meador of Texas said they lost by a lot with a little, following her pair’s 15-2 loss to Marley and Galdida.
“I’ve only been playing for two years,” Meador, who paired with Krystal Santos of San Diego, California, said. “We lost by a lot. But we’re not out, yet. We’ll come back. Just watch.”
The Dinosaur Beach Volleyball Tournament opened Friday and will continue through Sunday afternoon at Kalapaki Beach where at least four courts were set up to accomodate the volleyball players from around the state as well as from the mainland.
“I wanted it to end here,” said Andrea Stonebraker of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. “We wanted the game to be on the beach, it had to be doubles, and this is the first year we’re eligible to compete in this tournament because the combined ages must be 80.”
Andrea and her husband Scott have played in a doubles volleyball tournament in 49 states over the past six and a half years.
“We didn’t think about doing this,” Andrea said. “But after we played in the Mother Lode tournament in Colorado, on the way home, we said, ‘why not do this — a tournament in every state.’”
The Stonebraker duo said they will be competing in the Men’s Doubles division because they want to play together.
“We just want to play,” Scott said. “We don’t have any goals for this tournament. But in other tournaments, we’ve made at least 25 finals.”
That was a far cry from when Scott started playing.
“After I graduated high school, I moved to a place where they played doubles almost daily,” Scott said. “I learned how to play, but had to wait a lot because we’d lose our matches and have to wait.”
The waiting killed Andrea who never played volleyball until she met Scott.
“I was tired of just sitting around waiting,” she said. “I got him to teach me how to play the game.”
David Chaikin, the tournament director, said people are welcome to come watch the action from Saturday morning and through the finals which will take place Sunday.
“They may look old, but they can still play,” Chaikin said. “These dinosaurs are not extinct yet.”
Winners of the 2015 tournament are Jim Nichols and Greg Lyle in the Men’s Doubles, and Lynne Galli and Kelley Drobeck in the Women’s Doubles.
Information: gosmurf@hawaii.rr.com.
