My U19 Beach International Experience 2023 – Louise Wiener
Each year we ask a number of our young athletes to report back on their experience, today we focus on Louise Wiener, who was selected to represent the SW at this summer’s U19 International Beach Open Championships.
Representing Southwest in the 2023 U19 international Beach Open Championship was my second time playing beach volleyball competitively – the first being just a few weeks before in the Inter regional Beach Championships. During these few weeks, I felt I have improved massively in my beach volleyball skills as before this summer, I had only ever seriously played indoor volleyball (which all players know are two very different sports).
Firstly, I want to say how grateful I am to Southwest and my coaches for allowing me a chance to take part in this amazing experience and develop as a volleyball player.
My partner for this weekend was Charlie Chambers, a wonderful talent who I had previously had the privilege of playing with in the U17 Inter regionals Championship in May of 2023. Therefore, we already knew each other well and I was extremely excited to be able to play with her again.
On day one, the sun was out, and we were both excited / nervous to begin playing. Our first game of the tournament was against Ireland, in which Charlie and I were able to come out with a successful win (21-9, 21-14) which gave us plenty of confidence as we headed into game two. Playing Northern Ireland was a tough one but despite the challenge, we triumphed in two sets (21-18, 21-17)!
The last game of the day was against Scotland, which proved to be a very demanding one. After narrowly losing the first set 20-22, we had a little pep talk and were ready to go on to the next set. This one we won 21-17, meaning we had a third set to play for the win. Unfortunately, Scotland were able to win 15-7. Nevertheless, I was extremely proud of Charlie and myself for being able to battle through!
Together with the success of our second pair – Alexia and Heidi – this meant that we topped pool B at the end of the day!
On day two however, the weather was not on our side. Playing in the pouring rain (which I actually began to quite enjoy) meant that we had to adapt as a team to the new conditions and the heavier ball. Now, it was time to play England in the semi-finals – who were at the top of pool A. We knew that this would be a challenging game as we had watched this pair play throughout the weekend. After a hard-fought game, we ended up losing to England which left us in the 3rd/4th place playoffs.
An unfortunate injury to Alexia meant that to win bronze, Charlie and I would have to win both our game and the golden set, as Alexia and Heidi had to forfeit theirs. Therefore, our last game of the championship was against Scotland, the same pair we had already played and lost to the day before. Charlie and I were both more than exhausted at this point and thoroughly soaked by the rain, but we were determined to beat this pair – and we did! Taking it to another 3 sets, we were able to persevere and win which portrayed just how much we had evolved as a pair in such a short time. Now for the golden set to 15 points. After leading by 10-2 at one point, Scotland were able to catch up point-by-point and we ended up losing 14-16 in a gut-wrenching last set (leaving Scotland about 5 minutes to catch their plane home). However disappointing it can be, it is important to learn from these experiences and take them with you for the next time.
To conclude, I massively enjoyed this weekend and can confidently say that I feel like a beach player at the end of it all! So much love to Charlie for being the best partner that I could have gone through this experience with and for being by my side throughout the games. Thank you also to Southwest’s Dave Reece, Dave Gunter, and our coach Abbie Sinclair-Thompson who supported us throughout!
Louise Wiener