Aug. 4, 2008

Incoming USC freshmen men's volleyball players Tony Ciarelli and Jeff Carlson were runners-up at the 2008 FIVB Youth (Under-19) Beach World Championships in The Hague in the Netherlands on Aug. 3.

Ciarelli, from Huntington Beach (Calif.) High, and Carlson, out of Corona del Mar (Calif.) High, were the first team in the event's 7-year history to advance from the qualifier to the final. They also join Joey Dykstra and Mark Van Zwieten as the only American medalists at the FIVB Youth Beach World Championships. Dykstra, a current USC sophomore, and Van Zwieten captured a silver medal in 2005.

Ciarelli/Carlson lost in the gold medal match to the Estonian team of Kristo Kollo and Oliver Venno, 21-17, 21-16. Kollo/Kristo, the 2007 European U-18 champions, had been playing as a team for 3 years, while the USA duo teamed for the first time just a month ago.

Twenty-six countries were represented at 5-day 2008 FIVB Youth Beach World Championships.

To get to the finals, Ciarelli/Carlson first had to advance out of the 16-team qualifier. Seeded sixth in the qualifier, the duo beat teams from the Czech Republic (No. 11-seeded Daniel Pfeffer/Jan Rodek, 15-21, 21-15 and 15-13), Slovak Republic (No. 14 Matej Herich/Onderej Vavrinec, 21-15, 16-21 and 15-10) and Austria (No. 3 Christop Haas/Manuel Sarclettii, 21-17 and 21-18).

Then, seeded 19th in the 24-team main draw, Ciarelli/Carlson went 2-1 in pool play by defeating No. 6 Jan Joost van den Bogert/Jeroen Vismans of the Netherlands (21-16, 21-15) and No. 18 Luke Smith/William Mercer of Australia (1-6, 21-17) and falling to No. 7 Will Montgomery/Maddison McKibbin of the USA (21-10, 21-19). McKibbin's older brother, Riley, is a sophomore setter at USC.

Ciarelli/Carlson then defeated No. 8 Joona Manninen/Markus Vaisanen of Finland (21-18, 21-15) in Round 1 before upsetting top-seeded Christian Varenhorst/Johan van der Poel of the host Netherlands (23-21, 21-19) in the Round 2 quarterfinals. In both games of that quarterfinal, Carlson/Ciarelli overcame large deficits, four points in the first and six in the second to pull out the victory

That set up a semifinal showdown with No. 12 Jesus Castizo/Victor Bouza of Spain, with Ciarelli/Carlson coming from behind to win, 18-21, 21-17, 15-12, and get a berth into the gold medal match.