Skip to content

Peninsula duo bring home silver from nationals

Tessa Neil and Darby Dunn make it on the podium for second year in a row.
19167whiterockvolleyball-tessaneil-darbydunn
Tessa Neil and Darby Dunn (far left) took home silver at nationals.

Two Peninsula teens posted podium-worthy performances for the second year in a row at the 2013 Beach Volleyball National Championships held at Spanish Banks in Vancouver last month.

Reaching one notch higher on the podium than last year, Tessa Neil and Darby Dunn captured silver in the U-16 women’s division at the competition held over the Aug. 23 weekend.

The 15-year-olds narrowly missed the gold in the finals, after winning the first set (13-21), then losing the second set (21-16), forcing a tiebreaker that they lost 15-12 against Kelowna’s Quinci Birker and Thana Fayad.

The weekend event capped off a successful beach season for Neil and Dunn, who finished in fifth place at the U.S. U-16 Beach Nationals in Huntington Beach, CA., and won silver at the U-17 provincials.