By Sal Aversa |
Beach volleyball has been added as the newest WCC sport for the University of Portland. Practice began at the beginning of the semester and play will begin during the spring sport season.
Six WCC teams — Pepperdine, LMU, Pacific, Saint Mary’s, San Francisco and Santa Clara — already have beach volleyball teams. This year will be the start of competitive beach play in the WCC.
Head coach Brent Crouch and his staff will be coaching both the fall indoor team and the spring beach and indoor teams. Crouch spent the last four years as the head coach of St. Mary’s beach volleyball program. During his time with the Gaels, Crouch coached beach volleyball in the USA Volleyball High Performance Program.
At UP, Crouch’s roster for beach will be comprised from the same list as the indoor team that played in the fall of 2015 and will use a ladder system to determine which teammates are paired together.
“We teach our players to be all-round players indoors so the transition won’t be a massive challenge for them,” Crouch said.
The University is in the midst of developing a beach volleyball facility, but the team will be practicing primarily in the Chiles Center for now. When the Oregon rain lets up, the Pilots will practice in the sand courts in front of Shipstad and Fields and Schoenfeldt Hall.
Crouch said that he expects the facility to be in place no later than their second season.
Sophomore Sarah Savoca and junior Brittney Markwith are excited for the introduction of the beach volleyball team, but say that because of lack of experience, it will be challenging.
“A lot of us don’t have experience with playing beach volleyball,” Savoca said. “But I think that it will help us connect better as a team for the fall and it can only improve our skill level.”
While Markwith has never played beach collegiately, coming from Hawaii, she grew up around the sport.
“I watched a lot of people play for fun on the beach so I’m excited to learn more about the game and I know it will bring our team together,” Markwith said.
The players will also have to adjust to playing in the sand, which is a challenge to mobility. For UP players, not having a sand court to train on could be a disadvantage.
“Moving around on the sand is so much different than indoors,” Savoca said. “You can’t jump as high or run down a ball as quickly. Conditioning is harder on sand also.”
Indoor volleyball is played six on six. Beach is played with two players on each side of the net so that the women have to be all-around players as opposed to focused on one task such as serving, hitting or setting.
The recruiting process will not change for UP. The school will continue to recruit for the indoor program, but the girls will play for both the indoor and beach volleyball teams. UP will not recruit players specifically for beach volleyball.
“It’s an amazing sport to play,” Crouch said. “The WCC is adding it as a sponsored sport, and of course, we wanted to be a part of that. It’s also a great compliment to what we do on the indoor side.”
Sal Aversa is a sports writer for The Beacon. He can be reached at aversa17@up.edu or on Twitter @Sal_Aversa.
