1997-98 Victorian Beach Volleyball Series
During the 1996/'97 Victorian beach volleyball season, the number one and two ranked men's and women's teams from Thailand came down to play. We had permanent beach volleyball netsestablished at St Kilda which allowed players to train withoutthe hassle of obtaining and setting up their own nets. And thesuccess of Australia's Natalie Cook and Kerrie Pottharst winningbronze at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 no doubt helped toincrease numbers playing Beach last season (particularly in themen's divisions where there was a substantial improvement in theoverall standard).
The 1997/'98 season followed on even better with a newprofessionalism as many players trained on the sand throughoutthe winter months. There were also plenty of new faces down onthe beach adding to all the old regulars as the sport's profilecontinued to rise. SBS Television showed the Grand United ProTour each Sunday afternoon, finally giving Australian beachvolleyball the media coverage it deserves.
At the end of the VicBeach series these were Victoria's top ranked beach volleyballers (based on top 5 finishes):
| Final Men's Rankings | Final Women's Rankings | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Name | Ave Points | Rank | Name | Ave Points |
| =1 | Janssens, M. | 99.6 | =1 | Barnden, D. | 100.0 |
| =1 | Jones, P. | 99.6 | =1 | Tweedie, C. | 100.0 |
| 3 | O'Donnell, T. | 98.0 | =3 | Reimers, T. | 97.2 |
| 4 | Dykes, M. | 95.6 | =3 | Sharief, C. | 97.2 |
| 5 | Jury, G. | 95.2 | =3 | Mace, C. | 97.2 |
| 6 | Kay, S. | 94.4 | 6 | Dalton, J. | 94.4 |
| 7 | Pasara, J. | 92.0 | 7 | Longley, K. | 94.0 |
| 8 | Yudelevich, S. | 91.9 | =8 | Froling, P. | 90.4 |
| =9 | Carroll, M. | 90.0 | =8 | Payne, N. | 90.4 |
| =9 | Harry, G. | 90.0 | 10 | Croaker, J. | 84.8 |