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Ball State and North Greenville will now have national champions on their roster during the upcoming season — beach volleyball national champions.
Ball State outside attacker Kaleb Jenness and North Greenville Christian Phung competing as a pair went undefeated at the USA National Beach Tour Junior Championship in Siesta Key, Florida, to win the U18 Boys’ Division title.
Jenness and Phung swept six of its seven matches at the three-day event, including defeating Jonathan Jacques and Jacques Justice 21-11, 21-12 in the finals on Tuesday. This was the third match in the knock-out stage that the freshmen pair held its opponents to less than 15 points in each set.
This was the second consecutive year that Phung earned a gold medal at a USA Volleyball beach volleyball event.
Phung, a 6-foot recruit from Stone Ridge, Virginia, won the 2017 USA Volleyball Beach High Performance Eastern Zonal Championship. In addition, the North Greenville libber has been a part of the USA Volleyball High Performance beach and indoor programs since 2012.
Along with Phung, Jenness will transition back to indoor volleyball following his championship performance.
Jenness, a 6-foot-6 recruit from Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, led his indoor volleyball club team to a top-20 finish at the 2017 USA Volleyball Boys’ Junior National Championship. He also was limited to playing only club volleyball in high school because boys’ volleyball is not a varsity sanctioned sport in South Carolina.