Beach volleyball in California, at the community college level is barely in its second year as a sport for the California Community College Athletic Association.
Last year, there was a team’s state tournament, but for individual pairs, only the No. 1, 2 and 3 pairs of each team could compete in the tournament, according to the CCCAA archives.
This year, all individual pairs were rounded up by conference and the top eight pairs from each qualified for the state individual pair’s tournament at Grossmont College, beginning Saturday, May 7 at 10 a.m.
For a look at the brackets, click here. And be sure to follow @ECCUnionPhil for live updates beginning tomorrow.
But before the matches begin, here are five things/pairs to know or watch out for in the tournament:
1. The El Camino Warriors
Throughout all four conferences that qualified eight teams, El Camino led the state by advancing four of its five starting pairs. Irvine Valley and Mira Costa both advanced three of their starting five, while every other school advanced two, one or zero. No team advanced five.
For the Warriors, two of the teams are in the same bracket heading into the quarterfinals and three of the teams are in the same bracket heading into the semifinals.
“It’s unfortunate (that we might play each other), but that’s what happens,” sophomore Laynie Thompson said. “It’s a testament to how good we all are.”
Thompson and partner Sadie Fraker were the No. 1 seed at the Western State Conference tournament but after falling in the quarterfinals, are tnow the No. 12 overall seed.
EC has Michelle Shimamoto and Nickeisha Williams owning the No. 1 overall seed, while Brooke Russell and Taylor Brydon are steady as the No. 6 overall seed and Brooklyn Rubio and Jewel Yandall are the No. 25 seed.
2. San Diego Mesa’s Lisabella Lemusu and Kassandra Wright
The No. 2 pair from Mesa has been on a tear, and even though the pair only made it to the semifinals of the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference tournament, the team went to the SoCal regionals and took down Golden West’s No. 2 pair.
And later on, the pair would take down Williams and Shimamoto in dominating two-set victory (21-18, 21-5).
Lemusu and Wright are the No. 10 seed at state, and whether or not Williams and Shimamoto were tired or not on their game, the No. 1 seed was dominated at regionals.
3. Returning champs with new partners
Irvine Valley College swept the competition last year by not only winning the team state championship, but the Lasers’ won the No. 1, 2 and 3 pairs tournaments.
Hailee Earnest was part of the No. 3 pair’s winner and Emily Reinking was part of the No. 2 pair that won in 2015. But this year, both team’s make a return as partners.
The pair also won the Orange Empire Conference tournament and will come into the tournament as the No. 3 overall seed.
4. Home ground is good ground, or sand in this case
Grossmont College will be the site of the Individual Pair’s State Tournament, and with two of the qualifying 32 pairs being from Grossmont, the team could be en route to a championship weekend.
No. 8 seed Alejandra Rademacher and Katie Puga took second at the PCAC conference tournament, while Brooke Callahan and Robyn Arthur are the No. 18 seed.
5. Weather forecast
Unlike indoor volleyball, rain and winds do impact the gameplay of beach volleyball.
Swirling winds pushing balls five inches to the left, or rain drops hitting eyes and sunglasses can mess with the players and their positioning.
According to Yahoo’s weather forecast, there is a 40 percent chance of rain from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., which would be right in the strike zone for Saturday’s matches.
While both Saturday and Sunday would be “partly sunny” weather forecasts are not 100 percent accurate, the players should expect changes to happen, considering the weather fluctuations of Southern California.
