The 2017 Senior Beach Nationals, a Volleyball Canada event, wrapped up Sunday following three days of competition in North Bay.
Garrett May and Maverick Hatch are the newly crowned senior men's National Champions.
Hatch chalks the victory up to team dynamics.
"Admittedly we don't train as much as we probably should, but we have a very similar mentality on the court and I think that's what helps us be successful as a team, our mental strength and our control and belief. We don't need to get a ton of reps because we trust each other and we have great communication and we're out there having fun."
The pair describes their style as aggressive.
May says they fought hard all day to make it to the top of the podium.
"We had three matches today and all three were pretty tough matches for us. We started to feel the fatigue at the end but we had a lot of fun all day and we're happy to come out with a win," said May. "Having the crown of national champion I think will help for national team selection in the fall. I hope so anyway."
Coming in second is the team of Cameron Wheelan and Felipe Humana-Paredes.
Wheelan felt he had a lot of confidence and energy going into the gold medal game. In the end, it boiled down to serving.
"They served a lot more aggressively than we did. They used the wind to their advantage. I'm still pleased. We're a new partnership, we started playing together about halfway through the season. We had some injuries at the beginning of the partnership and I think we peaked at the right moment."
Humana-Paredes won at the nationals two years ago. He says it has been a tough season and is glad they finished it off on a 'relatively solid note'.
"I feel we play well together, our personalities mesh well together. I think it's a pretty calm style of playing where we calm down the rallies instead of making it more frantic and too energetic per se."
Rounding out the podium, in third place is Ryan Vandenburg and Aaron Nusbaum.
A total of 33 men's and women's teams, comprised of players 19 years of age and older competed in the tournament.
"It was a mandatory stop by Volleyball Canada for the teams to continue ensuring their ranking and also their carding towards the Olympic's so that they can keep that progression going. " said Amedeo Bernardi President of VSE Canada (Vision Sports and Entertainment).
The Senior Nationals is the final major to be held in North Bay this summer.
