San Diego Mesa College’s women’s beach volleyball team demonstrated amazing teamwork in a thrilling set of matches on April 12, emerging undefeated against San Diego City College and losing only one set to Miramar College. The team showcased remarkable effort in the sand, maintaining their outstanding record of 16 wins and 3 losses for the season.

College beach volleyball is fast paced and is significantly different from its counterpart, indoor volleyball. Rather than having six people on each team, the ten players on a team are split into pairs and the sets are played two against two. Each pair plays a set of rounds that go up to 21 against the opposing pair. The rounds are set to the best of three meaning if a pair wins two rounds, they automatically win the set. If the set is tied after two rounds, the final round is played up to 15 to determine the winner. It is also worth noting that a pair must win each round by two points. The final score is calculated by how many wins and losses in sets the team as a whole have acquired. 

A typical game day for beach volleyball involves three teams, each team going head to head against the other two. The first round of sets played against City College proved that the Olympians were not to be underestimated, with a final score of 5-0. Each pair of teams hustled the entire game, exhibiting a lot of great defense and offense. The Olympians worked their way around the court with a lot of dinks (a soft shot where a player lightly taps the ball over the net to the opponent’s court) and spikes when playing offensively. On defense, the pairs didn’t hesitate to dive in the sand in order to keep the ball in play. Their efforts paid off, ending their rounds of sets against City College undefeated.

“We practice a lot. We mainly run a lot of drills, but most of us are already experienced players as well,” said Kailyn Jager, a player for the Olympians.

After beating City College, the Olympians stole another win against Miramar despite losing one set. In an exciting set with Maria Coronado and Olivia Ostler, they won a tiebreaker after losing their first round to Miramar with a score of 13-21. Coronado and Ostler picked up the pace and won their second set in a close match of 21-17. The pair were able to close out their exhilarating round of sets and steal the win against Miramar with the final score of 15-10. Mesa lost their last set of the game, but displayed the same amount of effort as they did when playing City College. 

The Olympians’ offense was unmatched while playing Miramar. Coronado served up a number of aces (when a serve lands in the opponent’s court untouched, resulting in a point for the serving team) that gave them the advantage they needed. The team also did a significant amount of defensive plays with blocking and digging in order to keep the ball alive. The result of the final score between Miramar and Mesa was 4-1, with the Olympians obtaining another victory.

The Olympians have undoubtedly been doing very well this season. Their defensive and offensive plays displayed their astounding teamwork against City College and Miramar. Jager also noted that their training and experience have contributed to their impressive winning streak throughout the season so far. As the season comes to an end, the Olympians seem more than prepared for the PCAC Pairs Championships on April 24.