From the sports archives: San Mateo County volleyball battles on the ‘beach’

Notre Dame-Belmont has four sand courts now on campus, and the school is miles away from the beach.

But “beach volleyball,” as it’s officially called, is not so much about the court as it is the lifestyle. There’s not a lot of structure on the beach. There is a certain casual element to the game — both in play and in mentality. Tuesday, for example, a WiFi speaker was streaming 1990s hip hop from the mobile phone of Notre Dame-Belmont head coach Kimmy Washington during matches.

NDB hosted a three-team dual meet between the Tigers, Menlo School and Nueva School Tuesday afternoon. Palo Alto was supposed to compete, but the Vikings pulled out at the last minute, Washington said.

No problem. Because the Tigers have arguably the most players on any team in the Nor Cal Beach Volleyball league, 16, Washington simply put together a “B” team, if you will, to make up for the missing Palo Alto squad.

A team not making it to an event is not unheard of. Because the sport is just a club, there are no rigid schedules. Heck, some teams struggle to simply come up with three, two-member teams.

So when do the clubs play?

“Any time you can schedule it,” said Washington, who also serves as an assistant on the Tigers’ indoor team. “Sometimes it’s during the week. Sometimes it’s who’s available to play when.”

Don’t confuse a casual atmosphere with a lack of competitiveness. Once the players get on the courts, their will to win comes to the fore. It was most evident when NDB No. 1 team of Kelly Schakel and Ellie Muscat found themselves trailing the Menlo team of Abby Holleran and Emma Holland 24-18 in the first-to-28 game.

The NDB duo closed to 25-24 and tied it at 25-all on a Schakel kill. Muscat then posted a service winner to give NDB a 26-25 lead, but a Holland kill off a Tigers’ dig tied the match at 26.

But a Schakel kill, followed by a Muscat kill off the sideline tape gave the Tigers the victory.

Menlo won the team match, however, as the No. 2 team of Sharon Nejad and Simone Adam, and the No. 3 tandem of Alli McKenney and Cami Israelski won their matches over NDB’s Shea Wakasa and Ellie Pope, and Emma Baumgarten and Sophia Rangel, respectively.

Schakel said she uses the beach game to complement her indoor play. In fact, she was heading to club practice following her session in the sand.

“Indoor is what I want to go to college for,” Schakel said. “[The beach game] really helps. I get extra passes and touches. … There have been some tough times (balancing the indoor and outdoor game), but I realize I love the sport.”

Muscat, who played both inside and outside up until this season, has transitioned to the beach game exclusively.

“I played beach for fun over the summer and I just realized it was superior (to the indoor game). You just play a lot more. Transitioning over (from indoor to beach) is kind of learning a whole new sport.”

Muscat also realized that excelling in the beach game is another avenue to playing the sport in college, which is really starting to take hold across the country. Muscat’s teammate, Kendall Peters, for example, is committed to play beach volleyball at Tulane University next year.

“Since beach is such a new sport (at the collegiate level), there’s a lot of opportunities,” Muscat said. “There’s more of a chance of finding a spot (in a college program).”

The NDB team is the most involved team in the NCVB league. Tuesday’s matches were the 17th and 18th on the season for the Tigers and with Tuesday’s loss to Menlo, fell to 12-5 on the season. That record, coupled with the points they have earned for wins, has the Tigers sitting in first place and give them the highest seeds in the league tournament.

For Menlo and Nueva schools, however, this was their first seasons playing in the sand. The Knights were playing in their seventh and eighth matches of the season, while Nueva was playing just their fourth match of the season.

Teams have to play at least two matches to qualify for the season-ending tournament.

Nueva freshman, Cate Lee, was the impetus for the Mavericks’ beach team. She was the starting setter on Nueva’s indoor team that went 13-1 in capturing a piece of the Private School Athletic League championship. They went 16-3 overall and qualified for the Central Coast Section playoffs.

She wanted to put together a beach squad and started telling friends and teammates and got enough interested to field a couple two-man teams.

The team was making the trip from San Mateo to Atherton to train at Flood Park. But NDB invited the Mavericks to train at their facility.

“Notre Dame has been awesome for us,” said Nueva coach Allison Meehan, who also serves as an assistant coach for the College of San Mateo women’s volleyball team.

Meehan, who also coaches for the Sand Legs volleyball club, said the biggest difference she sees between the indoor and outdoor game is the constant building up of players, instead of tearing down.

“Beach has to be more positive. You can’t get down. There are no subs,” Meehan said. “It’s about constantly building confidence.”

It’s that positivity that leads to players shrugging off mistakes. When a ball splits a pair of players, there are no glares or finger pointing. Most of time, the players simply laugh it off because, in the beach game, players simply can’t get to every ball. And it’s OK.

“Why burn a lot of energy?” asked Menlo School coach Tony Holland. “Don’t go down (diving for every ball), because then you have to use energy to get up (and go on the attack).”

The play at Notre Dame-Belmont Tuesday was one of the last opportunities to get in some matches before the start of the season-ending tournament at Santa Cruz May 5. The following weekend, the top two teams from Northern and Southern California will be in a final four format to determine a state champion.