Beach Volleyfest’s elite to be crowned

THE Great Ocean Road Beach Volleyfest is in full swing with the best beach volleyball talent still to take centre stage.

The first chapter of the Volleyfest, the Beach Pro Tour Torquay Challenge, concluded on Sunday with Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes (United States) and Daniele Lupo and Enrico Rossi (Italy) securing the gold medals in the women and men’s bracket.

Now, just 16 teams, equally divided between men and women, are chasing down the goal of becoming Beach Pro Tour Elite 16 champions, with quarterfinals and semi-finals set to take place today (Friday, December 2) in front of an eager Surf Coast crowd, before medal matches are conducted tomorrow on Saturday.

Crowd numbers are expected to rise for the Elite 16 tournaments featuring Olympic-level talent going toe-to-toe.

Epic entertainment will accompany the Elite 16 action over the next two days with acts such as Kyle Lionheart (Friday 4.40-7pm), The Soul Movers (Friday 7.40-10pm), Steph Strings (Saturday 3.30-5pm) and Taylor Henderson (Saturday 7.30-10pm) performing during the knockout phase of the Elite 16 action.

Alongside with the World Tour and starting the action each morning on Friday and Saturday, Volleyball Australia will bring the first stop of the 2022/2023 Australian Beach Volleyball Tour to the Great Ocean Road Beach Volleyfest.

Teams from across the nation will battle it out in the Australian Elite and Challenger competitions with the event beginning today on Torquay beach and continuing tomorrow (Saturday, December 3).

Finals will then take over the Beach Volleyfest event site, and the semi-finals and medal matches will be showcased on the main stage on Sunday, December 4.

Finals and medal match tickets are in high demand as teams decide the podiums. Visitors can pay $10 for a ground pass, but access to the medal matches will cost $35 and finals will cost $25.

To purchase tickets to the final two days of the World Tour in Torquay and the accompanying Volleyball Australia tournament, head to beachvolleyfest.com.au/event-info/tickets