Spring-ing into action

Who is ready for spring?  I know I am!!! Winter is almost over in most parts of the country, while we still have 6 feet of snow on the ground and more snow expected this week.  I"m looking forward to spring and so ready for all this snow to be gone.  In order to start playing and training my favorite sport I'm going to be doing a ton of traveling the next few months.

Last weekend I jumped on a 5:15am flight to Denver, CO so I could play in an AVP America U18 tourney that day with a partner I had never met before, Grace Andrews from Boulder, CO.  The U18 competition in Denver was fantastic! I haven't seen good competition like that since last year in California.

The AVP America tournament we played was formatted in Queen of the Beach style for the first 2 pools/rounds.  So we played for 30 minutes straight in the first round and then 25 minutes in the second round, and that determined our Tournament Bracket position. We took 2nd scoring in the first round and 1st in the second round.  Here's a look at our 5 point run in the second round:

I'm wearing black shorts/black T-shirt and my partner is wearing black leggings/blue tank top

We ended up with a 3rd place finish, but I thought that was great considering it was our first time playing together and I had gotten up at 3am to catch the flight (which was really 2am with the time change) I'm looking forward to playing with Grace in many more tournaments in the future.

Here are highlights from the entire QOB round 2: AVP America Denver, CO

This week I travel out to California to play with Grace in the USAV BNQ in Hermosa Beach.  I'll spend the day on Friday on the beach training and getting touches with the other Colorado teams that are also traveling out. Then I'll go over to Long Beach State to watch some college tournament action.  Grace and I will also play the CBVA Women's AA on Sunday in Hermosa Beach.

Once back in Utah I'll have a couple of weeks to train before another local AVP America tournament. The months of May & June I will be traveling weekly competing in tournaments throughout the west (CO, NV, AZ, CA, & UT) and the month of July I am planning to live in California so I can train and play all the national beach tournament championships that I can.

I will be graduating from high school early next December 2019 and then moving to California to play and train beach volleyball for 8 months before starting college in the fall of 2020. I've been reaching out to tons of colleges and talked with quite a few coaches and I am starting to decide where I want to play.

If you ever want to come cheer me on at a tournament you can find my scheduled here:
Brie Miller beach tournaments 2019
I update this event page as I get partners, or if I can't find a partner then I delete the event.

So now lets hope we can get to play outside in Salt Lake City in the month of April, because I'm tired of playing indoor beach volleyball!

Stay sandy,
Brie

Sand-dance

I know, I know, I'm not very good at keeping up with my blog.  Here's the latest rundown.  Since I'm doing online high school I was able to spend over a month between Thanksgiving and New Years with my Dad in Breckenridge, CO. I loved it and it was nice to have a little "off season" of skiing and working out in the resort gym most days. I returned from Colorado and have finally gotten my feet in the sand. While Park City is buried in over 3ft of snow, I practice beach volleyball on Mondays and Tuesdays at an indoor beach volleyball facility and coach an indoor U12s team on Wednesdays and Fridays and occasionally coach tournaments on Saturdays. 

After only 4 days of touching sand since Thanksgiving, I got the opportunity to play in California this past weekend. Now lucky for me, Sundance Film Festival began last week. That means tourists, celebrities, high prices, and lots of traffic. All the Parkites know to stay hunkered down during this time of the year. But I did one better and went to the California beaches. 

My mom and I woke up at 4am on Friday morning, drove 10 hours to S. California.  We arrived at our hotel and in our room there was a beach volleyball picture.  I was meant to be.  





We then went to Hermosa Beach where my first stop was Paradise Bowls! I then met up with the girl who I partnered up with for the weekend, Leah Black (CSULB Long Beach commit). She’s such a great partner and an even better person. We planned on playing the USAV tournament and Relentless Showcase that weekend. Together we practice with one of her coaches in Hermosa for an hour and a half on Friday afternoon. After practice my mom and I ate dinner at Waterman’s on the Hermosa Pier for the first time, and let me say we were not disappointed. That night we were in bed by 7pm.

The next day Leah and I played in the USAV tournament in Manhattan Beach. This tournament was our first time playing together in a competition setting and (for both of us) the first time competing in Manhattan Beach. Eight points into our first match against Ava Gallien and Olivia Bakos (both USC commits who ended up taking 2nd in 18s), Leah landed on her foot the wrong way coming down from a block. She twisted her ankle (or popped a tendon) and was in terrible pain. So many thoughts were running through our minds. We had just traveled all the way from Park City to play with her and now she couldn’t even stand up to get off the court. We ended up forfeiting that first match. Luckily the schedule had us sitting then reffing the next two matches. That was when we were able to get Leah to the medic tent. She got her ankle wrapped up while we were trying to figure out what to do. Let me tell you, everyone was so overwhelmed and concerned for the other partner. My mom and I felt so bad for Leah because she was hurt. There is no way that we could have her play while hurt. Yet at the same time Leah was sorry because we had gone through so much to get to California to play in the tournaments. The Relentless tournament was the very next day so we had to find another girl to play with me just in case Leah couldn’t play.

Leah was very strong through the whole thing and persevered to play with me. I don’t want to make any excuses but because of all that happened and competing in CA rather than Utah I didn’t play my best game and we did not end up doing well. We were both pretty confident that had the ankle issue not happened that we would have taken second in pool and broken into the Bracket play. (We went in ranked 3rd in pool going into the tournament.) 

My mom and I drove down to Carlsbad, CA that afternoon where the Relentless College Showcase was to be held the next day. And with the mentality that “today is a new day” Leah and I played amazingly together on Sunday. We finally had that click, that yin-yang moment, the moment when you and your partner’s skills highlight each other. We took first in our pool and then waited for two hours until playoffs. That was when we began to fall apart. Our winning streak was almost over. We won the first match 28-22.  During the second match we were up 10-4, but then ended up losing with a score of 23-28 (we think, we forgot to write it down). During those last couple matches I began to get very anxious during timeouts or breaks. I was able to calm down by watching the waves hit the shore and visualize myself making a play.

Over all we finished with a 5th place in Gold Bracket U18s.  

I'm so happy (but of course want a podium finish).  I think I am the first Utah high school beach volleyball athlete to place in Gold Bracket in a showcase tournament ever! (At least from the standings/results my mom and I can find online.)

Here's the film from our first 2 matches at the Relentless showcase:

Overall it was a good weekend in California. But when you’re in California what time isn’t a good time? It sure is better than being frozen in Sundance. I will take the sunny beaches of Cali over the crowded, cold mountains of Park City any day. Sand-dance anyone?

It's been too long....

It's been a long time since I last blogged.  I've started some posts but never posted and then more things happened and the drafted posts seemed so outdated.  Here's a run down of the last 6+ months:

My partner Elise Porter, of S.Jordan, and I took 2nd place at the USAV/Rox VB Series 2018 Utah Beach State Championships in the U16 division.  We have played together many times over the last 3 summers and started the 2018 season together with a first place win on May 19th at the AVP First National Qualifier at Wasatch Beach in Murray, UT in the U16 division.  

Here are some videos to a couple tournaments Elise and I played in this summer:

My first beach tournament of the season was on May 12th in St. George, UT where I partnered with Michaeli Barnes to take 2nd place in U18 division of the AAU Beach Qualifier.  Mid-June I took my first trip of the summer to California to play in the “invite only” E-Invitational Beach tournament in Hermosa Beach, CA which is hosted by Olympian Eric Fonoimoana.  

Throughout the summer of 2018, I was successful in obtaining 5  National Championship “bids”. Earning two entry bids to the AAU Beach Junior Olympics in Santa Monica, CA  in the U18 division and one in the U16 division; an entry bid to the USAV National Championship in Siesta Key, FL in the U16 division; and an entry bid to the AVP First National Championship in Hermosa Beach, CA in the U16 division. Each bid was earned with a different partner. Unable to find a partner in time to make travel arrangements for those Championship tourneys, I ended up playing in the AAU Beach National tournament early July in Hermosa Beach, CA with another Utah friend, Rianne Brown, whose partner had canceled last minute.  Here's a video of Rianne & myself playing a tourney in Utah before heading to California.

Earlier this year I became the first Utah high school athlete to train “beach only” throughout the year and did not play high school indoor volleyball last season.  Returning to the indoor volleyball court for a three month stint early winter when my indoor volleyball club, Club GSL in S.Jordan, called and asked me to return as their Defensive Specialist for their top 16s team.  A family situation in April did not allow for me to finish the indoor club season.

This summer Promontory Club allowed me the opportunity to create and run/coach my very own “beach camp” at their Beach House.

Now I am definitely “beach only” going into my high school Junior year. Because I am the only Utah high school athlete dedicated to beach year round, finding a partner willing to travel to California for early season tournaments can be impossible. I will be attending online high school for the next two years so I have more time for training and travel to California for beach tournaments over the winter.

My family was able to take me to one last summer trip to California mid-August and I played in my very first CBVA tournament. I played with a partner I had never met and we were ranked 5th in pool going into the tournament. We ended up taking 2nd in pool and went into the Championship Bracket. We lost in quarterfinals so ended up taking 5th place overall. In the only 2 matches we lost all day, 3 of the 4 opponents were USC commits!

 

I also attended the AVP Manhattan Beach Open and watched some of the world’s best beach volleyball athletes compete.

While I was in California the local paper in Park City, ,UT featured me in an article.  
Here's a link to the Park Record newspaper article: Brianna Miller Takes Second in Utah Beach Volleyball State Championship

I'm super excited to continue my skill development this year and start narrowing down my decision on where I will attend college.


~ Brie