Delta’s beach volleyball team went head to head against Cosumnes River College and Folsom Lake College on April 12. They won 3 games to 2 against Cosumnes and 4 to 1 against Folsom.
Many of the team’s athletes play on both the beach volleyball team during the Spring season and the indoor volleyball team during the Fall season, but the two sports are surprisingly different.
“One is that you play with two players on the team. And to determine how a team wins, you have to win three out of the five. So you have five teams of two. Some of the rules, the court is smaller. Doubles, so you can’t contact the ball certain ways that you can in indoor.
You can’t open-hand tip. So, it is a big difference between indoor and beach,” said beach volleyball head coach Molly Hummel, who is also head coach of the indoor volleyball team.
All but two of the 11 players on the roster are freshmen, so for many this season was their first introduction to beach volleyball after coming from an indoor-only background.
“I feel like the first week of practice is really, really hard. Like it was hard to get the hang of the new environment, I guess and like it’s way harder to run in sand than versus a court,” said freshman Annyssa Arroyo.
Adaptability was a key skill in learning the new rules, technique and pressures of an entirely new sport, this was especially true for Arroyo who plays as a defensive specialist during the indoor volleyball season.
“I’m a D.S. (defensive specialist) indoor, so I don’t see front row at all, so I had to learn how to make the ball in the court or like just learn how to get it over the net,” said Arroyo.
A major difference between the sports is that beach volleyball is played in pairs, so these women need to rely on each other more than they have before.
“It’s important that the pairs are connected and that they’re able to communicate effectively and efficiently together,” said Hummel.
Freshman Soleil Sands and Arroyo feel that beach volleyball relies more heavily on trust and communication, especially due to the greater amount of movement needed for beach volleyball.
“Where you have five other girls on the court leading on and cheering for you, and beach volleyball is just, you know, you have one other person helping you out, so it’s a lot harder, and you have to cover more court,” said Sands.
Hummel views beach volleyball as having a more individual aspect compared to indoor volleyball, leading to the athletes focusing on improving their individual skills more. “Having six players on is, you [sic] hide some of your [sic] flaws or different things. When you’re playing doubles, if you’re down [sic], the focus is on you,” said Hummel.
Because many of the athletes playing for the beach volleyball team also play for the indoor team in the fall, they’re time playing beach allows for them to improve their indoor game. Playing two seasons rather than one season with off-season training is seen as more beneficial by some of the athletes.
“Beach makes us more crafty, so when indoor comes around, we’ll know so many more tricks, and I feel like we’ll have a stronger bond with all of our teammates because we know what it’s like having one other person, so I think hearing everyone out will be better,” said Sands.
Sands hopes to use the beach volleyball season to improve her serve, something that she is not used to doing during the indoor season. Her biggest goal is to become a good all around beach volleyball player, so that she can continue playing at a four-year university.
“My individual goal is I want to be so good at beach. Like I want to be able to transfer out and play beach at a four-year because it’s so fun. I think it’s my new favorite sport,” said Sands.
Arroyo’s goals for the season include growing even closer as a team and making it to the playoffs in May.
Beach volleyball next plays Sierra College and Sacramento City College on April 19 at home.