Injury Derails Father-Son Duo in Finals

The father-son combination of Oscar and Tyler Cobian were looking for redemption Saturday in the Sharkeez Rosecrans Unrated men's doubles beach volleyball tournament in Manhattan Beach. Instead, the duo was forced to retire due to injury late in the finals. 

After losing 21-19 to the tandem of Tanner Nua and Charlie Condron earlier in pool play of the 18-team field, the Cobians defeated the team of Bob Kwon and Dan Kimm, 28-17, in the semifinals for the right to play for the $12,000 grand prize. 

And awaiting them once again was Nua and Condron, who edged Jared Moore and Phil Younglove, 28-26, to reach the finals. 

In a see-saw affair tied at 19 in the rematch, Condron sprawled out for an acrobatic dig to set up a well-placed backhand finish for Nua. On the play, however, the 40-year-old Oscar Cobian crashed to the sand after his left leg cramped up while diving for the ball. After about five minutes of receiving water, he was helped off the court and could not continue, ending the match at 20-19 in the first-to-28-points competition. 

"We were actually looking forward to coming back around because we saw they were in the semis and we were in the semis, and were like, 'Oh, it would be great to play them (again),'" said Oscar Cobain. 

"But it was a fun challenge." 

Despite a considerable size advantage -- Nua stands at 6-foot-8 while Tyler Cobian is well under 6-feet -- the father-son duo from Ventura was able to challenge Nua of Palmdale and Condron of Huntington Beach at the net. Just before the final play, 14-year-old Tyler Cobian actually blocked Nua's kill attempt but deflected the ball out of bounds to tie the score. 

The formidable test was not lost on Condron and Nua, who both played indoor for Division I Cal State Northridge last season. 

"They were making us move and work," said Condron, a 20-year-old sophomore libero for the Matadors. His partner, Nua, 21, just completed his senior season. 

"They're very scrappy, picked up a lot of shots that would normally go down and they just waited for us to make the errors," Nua said. 

Despite the result, the Cobians said the experience gained will help Tyler, who was selected for the U.S. National beach volleyball training team, which will meet in August at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista. 

"I'm hoping to (eventually) play indoors in college and, if I can, try to pursue beach volleyball outside of college," Tyler Cobian said.