Girard’s Hunkus playing beach volleyball for U.S.

The Duke University graduate is competing in Finland with America’s No. 2 squad.

By JOHN KOVACH

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

Tealle Hunkus, the former Girard High and Duke University volleyball standout, will be representing the United States in international beach volleyball competition.

Hunkus, 24, will pair with Brooke Sweat to form the U.S. National Team’s No. 2 tandem at a Swatch Federation of International Volleyball (FIVB) World Tour event slated in Finland that will start Monday and conclude Saturday.

The FIVB meet in Finland is called the second annual Pakistan Air Force (PAF) Open that will be staged in Mariehamn on the Öland Islands.

Öland is an archipelago and has 25,000 permanent residents and attracts more than 2 million visitors annually. Öland also features the most sunshine hours in the entire Nordic region.

The Swatch Group is the world’s largest watch company and the title sponsor for the Beach Volleyball World Tour.

The PAF Open marks the second time that the Finnish and Swedish Volleyball federations have joined forces to stage a SWATCH FIVB World Tour event.

In June, Hunkus, a 6-foot-1 outside hitter and an All-American at Duke, was selected along with seven others by USA Volleyball to attend the USA Volleyball A2 (U-26) Beach National Training Team.

That group then was trimmed to four players — Hunkus, Sweat and the No. 1 pairing of Christal Morrison and Cayley Thurlby.

Hunkus, who lives in Redondo Beach, Calif., has been training in Southern California with USA Volleyball beach coach Eduardo “Anjinho” Bacil and assistant Jon Aharoni.

Hunkus recently paired with Cindie Boosin to finish tied for 17th at the Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP) Manhattan Beach Open on July 17-19. Her team defeated Morrison and Ashley Groothius, Thurlby and Diane Copenhagen, and Sweat and Morgan Flarity.

Hunkus began playing professional beach volleyball with the AVP after graduating from Duke in 2007.

This year, she has played on the AVP Young Guns Tour, which is designed to help promising players to build main draw points and prize money. She has two fifth-place finishes on the Young Guns circuit, and currently is ranked No. 15 while Sweat is ranked No. 11 and Morrison No. 3.

The daughter of David and Holly Hunkus, she played four seasons for Duke from 2003-06 under coach Jolene Nagel. She was an American Volleyball Coaches Association Honorable Mention All-American in 2006, and a two-time All-Atlantic Coast Conference second-team selection.

Hunkus finished her four-year career with 1,162 kills, 1,152 digs and 114 service aces, becoming the ninth player in Duke history to surpass the 1,000 mark in career kills and digs. She tied for No. 11 in career kills and ranked No. 10 in career digs.

Hunkus helped Duke to win the 2006 ACC Championship, and was a member of two NCAA Tournament teams, helping the Blue Devils reach the second round in each of those post-season trips.

While at Girard High, Hunkus was selected to the Volleyball Magazine Fab 50, Prep Volleyball Top 100 and Student Sports All-American teams. She set Ohio high school records for kills in a career (1,169) and season (470).

kovach@vindy.com