The first time Brodie Hofer and Colton Loewen teamed up proved to be successful.
The duo, from Langley and Abbotsford respectively, dominated the boys beach volleyball tournament at the Abbotsford 2016 BC Summer Games, clinching the gold on Sunday with a two set (21-15 and 21-16) win over the Fraser River pair of Matthew Armstrong and Jakob Toews.
The pair went undefeated in every game to earn the gold.
"It felt good and it's pretty rewarding to win," Loewen said. "We haven't really played much together and we were kind of figuring each other out the whole tournament."
Loewen and Hofer aren't total strangers, as they both play on the Force club team. They're also well aware of the rivalry between their schools of MEI and Langley Christian School.
Loewen said it was a tough battle with Fraser River, but their chemistry clicked near the end of the first set.
"We decided to really turn it on and I think we were kind of in cruise control at the start," he said. "We just had to slow it down a bit and play our game."
He said it was nice to see the Fraser Valley also take home gold in the girls division.
"It's always encouraging to see your friends win," he said. "We were definitely cheering them on."
The pair now are set to square off against each other at the beach volleyball provincials in Vancouver starting on Saturday.
The Cariboo-North East team of Graham Walkey and Ben Shand earned bronze earlier on Sunday.