SportStars reports
Several members of the Northern California Volleyball Association High Performance team turned in an outstanding performance at the USA High Performances Championships in Tucson, Ariz. on July 28-30, bringing the silver medal back to the East Bay.
It was the best-ever showing for the team in one of the most prestigious tournaments in the nation, said Prima Elam, the head coach of the team and the director of Velocity Sports Performance in Dublin, where many of the players are trained.
“The best kids from all over the country come to play. It’s basically a pipeline to USA Volleyball,” Elam said. “It was really excited for us and all the kids involved and the Northern California Volleyball Association. It was the best finish they’d had for the season.”
The NCVA puts together a regional team to compete against the USA team, Elam said, and the NorCal team beat two USA teams at the tournament.
Leading the way was former Cal-San Ramon standout Aquiles Montoya, who hit .750 for the tournament. Also representing the team was Ben Nilsen (Granda-Livermore), Dynamite Faagata (Encinal-Alameda), Tony Zhang (Mission San Jose-Fremont), Trevor Bryant (Nevada Union-Grass Valley), Mason Humes (Del Oro-Loomis), David Parker (Whitney-Rocklin) and Jake Getz (Mt. Madonna-Santa Cruz).
Montoya, Nilsen, Faagata and Zhang each train at Velocity.
Another East Bay player, Ryan Genn of Amador Valley, was originally going to play but was instead selected for the USA A2 national team, Elam said. While there, he was moved up to the A1 team.