Manhatten Beach Open

Today, we returned to the 50th annual Manhatten Beach Open for another day of exciting volleyball action. There were fewer games to watch, or photograph, but the games lasted longer as the teams were more closely matched. Instead of rally scoring used in other volleyball games where a point is awarded each time a ball is served, the Manhatten Open reverted to classic side-out scoring where only the team serving the ball is able to earn a point. That made the games last longer even though the teams were only playing to 15 points.

The men?s matches got most of the attention with their hard hit spikes and towering blocks, but as this photo shows the women are able to explode out of the sand and play way above the net as well.