From Feb. 17 to 19, Campolindo beach volleyball held tryouts at Moraga Commons Park after school. This is the sport’s third year as an established program. Beach volleyball is a spring sport beginning in February and ending in May. It is very similar to indoor volleyball, the key differences being that beach volleyball is played on the sand and in mini teams of two people.

The beginning of the beach season brought lots of excitement for returning Campo volleyball players and new players, with over 30 people trying out in total. Sophomore Hannah Racynska shared why she loves playing beach volleyball and decided to play it again this year. “I love beach volleyball because it’s a super relaxing sport and I love the community of coaches and teammates here,” she said.

The excitement for beach volleyball was temporarily put on pause as the first day of tryouts was spent in the pouring rain and wet sand, so players had to bundle up in layers and bring lots of towels. However, the suboptimal rain “showed who was dedicated to the sport because the coaches saw how much they wanted to be there and work hard even in bad weather conditions, which affected who made the team,” said beach volleyball player, junior Molly Herrington. Also, the weather was much sunnier for the last two days of tryouts so players were able to enjoy it more. A few days after tryouts, the two coaches made their decisions and selected 26 players for the team.

The next week, the team played their weekly Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday games against Acalanes, Clayton Valley, and Monte Vista, achieving wins against all three schools. On Saturday, March 7, the team went to Ocean Beach in San Francisco to compete in an all-day tournament against other local schools. All of the girls were paired up with a partner and played six or seven games throughout the day. After eight hours of hard playing in the sun, the Campo team got first place out of four schools. “The tournament was a super positive experience because everybody played great and everyone was cheering each other on, which led to Campo sweeping the gold bracket,” said sophomore beach volleyball player Sophia Wilson.

The Campo beach team has already achieved amazing things within the first month of their season and is hoping to keep up that momentum.