Youngs and Richardson Advance

Elaine Youngs and Deb Richardson advanced to the second round of the Op Best of the Beach Invitational volleyball tournament Friday in Huntington Beach.

Richardson, seeded 10th, and Youngs, seeded 13th, will join the top six seeded players in today’s competition. The eight players will play for four spots in Sunday’s finals.

Richardson, a 1996 Olympian, was undefeated (3-0) in her pool Friday and Youngs, a 1996 Olympian and former UCLA and El Toro High standout, won two of her three matches.

Youngs, the 1997 rookie of the year after winning two events in six starts, bounced back from a loss in her first match Friday. Gail Castro and Chris Schaefer defeated Youngs and Krista Blomquist, 15-10. Youngs and Schaefer defeated Blomquist and Castro to set up the final match of the day between Youngs-Castro and Schaefer-Blomquist.

Schaefer only needed 11 points in the match to advance, but Youngs’ block with five seconds left on the rally clock gave her team a 15-9 victory.

The competition continues at 10 a.m. today with Richardson and Youngs joining No. 1-seeded Lisa Arce, No. 2 Holly McPeak, No. 3 Nancy Reno, No. 4 Barbra Fontana, No. 5 Linda Hanley and No. 6 Angela Rock.