All She Does Is Beach, Beach, Beach

Before the summer began I had this perfect vision of how my beach volleyball season was going to go. I had made arrangements to play with a new partner this year (last year I played every tournament with a different partner so this year I thought it would be best to have a partner that I would play with the entire season rather than bouncing from partner to partner).  The partner I convinced to play with me is such a great gal and a really good indoor OH so with me being Libero/DS we thought it would work, but we live 60 miles away from one another and had no real opportunity to train together. So here I am and it's the middle of July and that vision was kind of a bust. However, I did get to do some pretty great things this summer that is really impacting my volleyball career.

Mid-June I went to Boise State University beach volleyball camp. Let's play a game of "Never have I ever". Never have I ever thought I would want to live in Idaho, nonetheless Boise. But after a couple of days in the "Tree City" a special place for Boise has grown in my heart. The city and campus of Boise is absolutely beautiful. The coaches at BSU are so kind and the BSU collegiate players are not only great volleyballers but also great people to kids, adults, and everyone in between. Ever since the trip to go to Boise State's beach clinic, BSU is for sure on my college list.

Next I went to California. There I played in the Queen of the Beach Invitational in Hermosa Beach, CA hosted by Eric Fonoimoana. I heard about the tournament from Sammee Thomas, a PCHS graduate, who is now committed to playing beach at Stetson! I was most likely the youngest and weakest one there. I expected that would be the case since all the girls were seniors and juniors and from CA. After the fun experience I went to a clinic with Stein Metzger, the beach coach at UCLA. At that clinic I learned so much and wished I could have gone to the following clinic the same week but Utah was calling my name.

Prior to the trips to Boise and California I played had in a couple tournaments and didn't get the result I wanted and expected, however, I did earn a bid to the AAU Beach Junior Olympics. I had also missed a few tournaments in Utah due to prior commitments or my partner backing out and not being able to find anyone else to play with. But last weekend was the last AVP First bid tournament in Utah. My partner from last year, Elise, asked me last minute to play with her.  Elise and I had won the Utah State Beach Championships together last summer in the U14 division so I knew we meshed well together on the court.

We finished first place in the U16 division without dropping a set! We earned a bid to play in the AVP First Champtionships. It's awesome we won but the best part was seeing my GSL family. Elise also plays at GSL and three other teams at that tournament also go to GSL and were on my indoor team. It was so fun to see everyone and not have any drama. Those two days we just got to play the best sport ever (beach volleyball)!  You can read about our win in this article from my local paper: Miller Aiming to Conquer the Beach

Now Elise and I are getting ready to head down to the AAU Beach Junior Olympics in Santa Monica next week. We will be playing in the U15 division on Thursday and Friday (July 20-21) so look for us out on the sand.   We are both so excited to play together and get the chance to play in California!

Until next time..... keep getting sandy!     Brie