CALLALA Beach's Alexandria and Mireille Smith and Callala Bay's Malia and Parri Barrele have all starred for NSW during the recent Australian Youth Beach Volleyball Championships.
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Their journey to the Coolangatta-based tournament started last year, with the two sets of siblings playing in a host of competitions along the east coast of Australia - which doubled as trials for the state team.
Then in March, the quartet was selected in the NSW youth Phoenix beach volleyball squad to compete in Queensland from April 26-29.
At the titles, Mireille Smith teamed up with fellow NSW squad representatives Oriwia Noble (Sydney) and Remy Song (Sydney).
The trio produced strong pool play, seeing them win five of their opening six matches.
They then progressed through the quarter-finals winning against Queensland number five 21-5, 21-17, to qualify them for the semi-finals.
There, they squared off with Queensland one but that meant little, as NSW won 21-14, 21-13, to progress to the decider.
For the third straight final, they took on a Queensland-based side - this time, it was their second team.
Despite losing the first set 22-20, NSW rebounded to win the second 21-14, before claiming the match with a 15-13 scoreline in the third - to secure them the gold medal in the under 15 girls division.
"I believe myself and the team played to our potential and worked together perfectly in Queensland," Smith said.
"Winning the final was very exciting and overwhelming - I was jumping and hugging my two teammates.
"This medal represents all the hard work I've put towards training and the long season leading into nationals.
"It's easily my greatest sporting achievement to date - I have improved a lot since last year and winning this event is the highest level I can reach in this country as a junior beach volleyball athlete."
In the under 17 girls, Alexandria teamed up with Parri Barrelle in the NSW side.
The pair opened their accounts with 21-14, 21-16 pool C win against Queensland's Tandia Briggs and Ruby Lonsdale.
They backed this up with wins against ACT (21-7, 21-13) and South Australia (21-17, 13-12, 15-7), before losing to Victoria (13-12, 21-16, 12-15).
This put them into a match-up with Queensland's Kayla Cantrill and Ayla Harmer, which they won 22-24, 21-12, 15-11.
But the pair's run ended in the quarter-finals, falling to Victoria's Sienna Arena and Ella Mustovic 21-16, 21-11.
The Callala Bay duo bounced back to win their next two repechage matches, to finish the tournament in fifth.
The final Shoalhaven product to compete at the tournament was Malia Barrele, who teamed up with Kaia Brienen in the NSW under 18s side, which finished 13th overall.
Mireille, who plays for Sydney North Volleyball Club's under 18s division one side in the Sydney Volleyball League, Alexandria and Parri are also Illawarra Academy of Sports (IAS) Lonestar scholarship holders for beach volleyball.
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