New challenge for Tilley

VOLLEYBALL

FORMER Campion College student Julia Tilley will have a new partner and No. 1 ranking when she and Micah Lindsay-Brown compete in the International Beach Volleyball Tour starting in Hamilton next month.
Tilley, 22, had to find a new team-mate when Audra Penney and her husband, former New Zealand Breakers basketball player Kirk Penney, moved to Spain this year.
Lindsay-Brown is from Blenheim, and she and Tilley have played only once together — last weekend in the Tasman grand slam, which they won convincingly.
Tilley, who completed her post-graduate primary school teacher training at Waikato University this year, has a degree in sport and management studies.
“Micah is coming up for another grand slam at Mt Maunganui on December 29 and 30 and will be spending the summer at the Mount,” Tilley said.
A New Zealand beach volleyball representative at under-19 and u21 level, including world championships, Tilley toured Indonesia and Vietnam with the national open beach volleyball team this year.
She also captained the Hamilton women’s indoor volleyball team who came fourth in the club nationals this year.
“There were only 12 teams at the nationals as you had to qualify to go,” Tilley said.
“Teams qualified by playing pre-national tournaments.
“Clubs were from all over New Zealand.
“Among the teams we beat were Smash (Christchurch), Sparta (Auckland), North Harbour Raiders (Auckland) and NSIS (Wellington) and we narrowly missed out on a medal when we lost a five-setter to Waitakere.”
A squad of 40 picked from the nationals were whittled down to 14 to go overseas, and Tilley was among the 14.
“We played at least three games at each tournament — the first was the Belitung Open in Indonesia where we placed ninth out of 24 teams.
“The second tournament was the Halong Bay Open in Vietnam where we came seventh out of 24 teams.”
Both tournaments were for beach volleyball.
Tilley was also a member of the national team who played two matches against a top Chinese volleyball team, Tianjin, playing as an open hitter and passer.
“They are an experienced professional team who travel the world playing, and that was reflected in the scores — they beat us 25-13, 25-15 and 25-9 in Tauranga and 25-16, 25-17 and 25-18 in Auckland.
Following the international beach volleyball tour, which ends in February, Tilley will turn her attention to the second round of the Oceania Olympic qualifier for the beach version of the sport.
Then she will turn back to the indoor season with the goals of winning the Oceania world championships qualifier in Australia and the South Pacific Challenge in New Zealand. Both will be held in April.
With new Zealand not being one of the high-profile sports in New Zealand, Tilley and Lindsay-Brown are hoping to bag a major sponsor.
“We’re selling tickets at $100 with all the ticket holders’ names going into a draw to have exclusive naming rights,” Tilley said.
“It’s been calculated the package is worth $2500 in advertising.”