Girls Beach Volleyball Joins Spring Sports Lineup at Athletic Round Table Press Luncheon

Members of the San Marcos girls beach volleyball team were introduced at the Athletic Round Table Press Luncheon on Monday. They include, from left, Kate Edgar, Devin Brunet, Kennedy Frisell, Ava Cole, Riley Green and Lily Blankenhorn. (Barry Punzal / Noozhawk photo)

High school girls beach volleyball made its debut at Monday’s Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table Press Luncheon at Harry’s Plaza Cafe.

The CIF approved girls beach volleyball as an official sport last year.

Locally, Channel League members Santa Barbara High, San Marcos, Dos Pueblos, and Santa Ynez field teams, along with Bishop Diego, Providence and Laguna Blanca in the Tri-Valley League.

San Marcos and Dos Pueblos were represented at Monday’s luncheon.

San Marcos was so excited about having beach volleyball on the luncheon program it brought six members of the team.

“Abe made me bring everybody,” assistant coach Tina Brown said with a smile. “He was like, ‘Well, beach volleyball has never been recognized, so bring six girls.’

“I’m like, ‘Awesome, we’ll do it.’”

Brown said the sport is still trying to figure out how league and CIF is going to work on determining regular and post-season formats.

The Channel League just completed a double round-robin schedule of team matches, and San Marcos took first place with a 9-1 record — Brown added matches with West Ventura County schools Oxnard, Buena, Ventura and Rio Mesa — and was 14-2 overall.

The CIF isn’t conducting playoffs this spring, but the area coaches came up the idea of a post-season event for their individual doubles teams.

“We kind of made up our own little playoffs for league,” said Brown, who serves as junior varsity coach and helps out head varsity coach Cassidy Drury-Pullen, a San Marcos alum.

On Tuesday, pairs from Santa Barbara, San Marcos, Dos Pueblos and Santa Ynez will have a pool-play competition at West Beach, and the pairs from Buena, Ventura, Rio Mesa and Rio Mesa will do the same at the Ventura Harbor courts.

Dos Pueblos coach Mike Fitzgerald brought beach volleyball players, from left, Natali Flint, Erin Curtis and Lucy Speier to the Round Table luncheon. (Barry Punzal / Noozhawk photo)

After pool play, the teams from both venues will advance to a “big bracket playoff” Wednesday at West Beach, said Brown.

“It’s going to be really fun.”

Brown introduced three San Marcos pairs: the No. 1 duo of junior Lily Blankenhorn and sophomore Kate Edgar, No. 2 junior Riley Green/senior Ava Cole and No. 3 junior Devin Burnet/senior Kennedy Frisell.

Brown said Blankenhorn “is an unbelievable defender” and Edgar “is all over the board and a great offensive arm.”

Green and Cole will be playing together to finish “because they are both great friends and fantastic athletes,” said the coach.

Brown said Burnet and Frisell have “been owning it” at either the No. 4 and 5 position in matches this season.

“I don’t think they’ve lost a game.”

Dos Pueblos beach volleyball coach Mike Fitzgerald said the action at West Beach “is going to be some incredible high-level volleyball.”

His No. 1 pair of Cal-bound Portia Sherman and junior Chloe Hoffman is undefeated the season.

Fitzgerald introduced three of his student athletes, junior Lucy Speier and the senior combo of Natali Flint and Erin Curtis.

He said the lefty Speier plays at the No. 3 position.

“All the youngsters want to play with her because of she’s an incredible positive influence. I think we finally found a partner which is going to be her best partner going into the pairs championships.

“I’m really looking forward to see how they end up playing and doing in the that playoff. She is an incredible athlete and an incredible player.”

Flint and Curtis are the Chargers’ No. 2 combination.

“They not only compete at a high level, but they’re also academic wizards,” said Fitzgerald. “All they’ve done in their career is win at the two position 90% of the time.

“They’ll have their work cut out of them Tuesday and Wednesday, because they’re playing in the top division and they’re going to have to beat some teams that are maybe ranked ahead of them. But if there’s anybody that can do that, I’d put my money on that team.”

QUOTES OF THE DAY

Santa Barbara baseball assistant Joe Holguin on playing crosstown rivals San Marcos and Dos Pueblos back to back:

“Coach George (Hedricks of Dos Pueblos) said you can’t breathe during (the crosstown) games. We feel that we can’t breathe going into this week. We thought we could get a breather… we just played San Marcos. Then we get DP.”

The Dons (7-4 in league) host Dos Pueblos (8-3) on Tuesday, and play at DP on Friday.

Dos Pueblos softball coach Mike Gerken on Leila Chisholm’s great running catch at the left-center field fence that prevented San Marcos from scoring two runs: “Leila got a jump on it, and made an over-the-shoulder catch like it was a post pattern in the NFL.”

Dos Pueblos baseball coach George Hedricks on senior Joe Molina: “Guys like Joe are some of the favorite players that I’ll ever have as coach. It’s not easy to be a senior who is not a starter. It’s tough. We have a ton of seniors on our team, and they don’t always get to play.

“Joe always has a good attitude, he works his butt off in practice and he is my most trusted bat off the bench, hands down. He continues to stay consistent and earn that spot through his attitude, through his effort and what he does in practice. Seniors like him are what make me the most excited as a coach.”

All of the coaches’ presentations and student athlete introductions can be seen on the above video.

Here is a list of the coaches and the student athletes who attended and were mentioned at the presentations:

GIRLS LACROSSE

San Marcos: Coach Paul Ramsey, KC Springer, Megan Taylor

Dos Pueblos: Coach Sam Limkeman, Mia Termond, Makayla Severson, Madeline Nees

Santa Barbara High: Coach Elayne Blessing, Emma Hall, Elizabeth Blaueslee

BOYS LACROSSE

Dos Pueblos: Coach Justin Juarez, Salem Bawaneh

Santa Barbara: Coach John Keogh, Michael Mascari, August Nielsen, Niko Klopp

BEACH VOLLEYBALL

Dos Pueblos: Coach Mike Fitzgerald, Erin Curtis, Natali Flint, Lucy Speier

San Marcos: Assistant Tina Brown: Riley Green, Ava Cole, Kennedy Frisell, Devin Brunet, Lily Blankenhorn, Kate Edgar