Palisadians Dig Deep at World Championships

Hagen Smith and Bantle Brothers Represent the United States in FIVB Beach Tournaments  

His father may cast a long shadow, but 19-year-old Hagen Smith is making his own mark in beach volleyball.

When his original partner and UCLA teammate Oliver Martin had to withdraw less than a week before Team USA was to leave for the U21 World Championships in Larnaca, Cyprus, Smith was paired with alternate Chris Orenic of USC for his FIVB debut. Despite never having played a tournament together before, they battled through qualifying to earn a spot in the main draw and won their opening pool play match, showing that indeed the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

Smith is the oldest son of pro beach volleyball legend Sinjin Smith and is named after his dad’s first partner, Ron van Hagen. Following in Sinjin’s footsteps, Hagen is going to UCLA, where he plays setter and libero on the floor, but he’s making a deeper impression on the sand, especially after he and Orenic upset 11th-seeded Maris Lancmanis and Vlads Smirnovs of Latvia, 22-20, 21-15, in their first match of the main draw.

The Americans were unable to sustain its momentum, however, dropping their four remaining pool play matches to duos from Brazil, Mexico, Spain and Australia. They survived three match points in the seond set against Mexico before finally falling 21-11, 26-24.

Smith wasn’t the only Palisadian having fun in the sun at the U21 tournament. So too was his longtime friend and current Bruins teammate Jackson Bantle, who joined Branden Clemens to go 2-3 in pool play and reach the round of 16 in the elimination phase.

After needing just 27 minutes to sweep a Sierra Leone duo, 21-14, 21-13, Bantle and  Clemens (who plays for Harvard University) lost to a pair from Germany, bounced back to beat a team from Saint Lucia, then fell to tandems from  Ukraine and Poland.

In the first elimination round, the Americans rallied past Jasper Bouter and Steven van de Velde of the Netherlands, 13-21, 21-19, 15-11. Then, in the round of 16, Bantle and Clemens lost to Hendrik Mol and Christian Sorum of Norway, 21-13, 21-15, giving them a ninth-place finish.

Only days before the U21 World Championships started, Bantle’s younger brother Will got to experience international competition a little closer to home. He and partner Rob Mullahey played in the FIVB’s U17 World Championships in Acapulco, Mexico and also finished ninth, falling in the round of 16 to a pair of Frenchmen that won the European championship this year.