Sand City Volleyball Club headed to National Championship for fourth straight year
Maxwell Glenn
MONTEREY COUNTY, Calif. (KION) – The Sand City Volleyball Club’s 18 Gold girls’ team will be traveling to Utah for the USA Volleyball Girls Junior National Championship.
The team is comprised of some of the best talents from around the Central Coast, but also includes skilled players from outside the area, like Ava Van Brasch from San Luis Obispo.
“I think it just shows how much we love this sport,” Van Brasch said. “How much we’re willing to dedicate parts of our lives for it.”
Van Brasch and others regularly make the commute to practice and play for the club.
Despite the distance, it’s a tight-knit group. That’s something that stands out to players like Natalie Mendoza.
“I think it is really important that we connect off the court, too, as well as on,” Mendoza said. “When you’re on the court, it all just makes sense.”
But it’s on the court where Hannah Garrett said the team ran into a variety of setbacks.
“Everyone was sick. We had hurt players,” Garrett said. “We had people with their backs hurt, people with hurt shoulders. We just came out, and we were down a lot in a lot of the sets, but we came back and won.”
The team persevered, qualifying at the NCVA Sierra National Qualifiers in Sacramento to punch their ticket to Nationals for a fourth straight year. Maya Giannini called it a special moment for the team.
“I think we’ve seen our downs and our ups, and I think we’ve overcome so much as a team that we can put our best foot forward to succeed in the tournament,” Giannini said.
SAND will begin competition at the three-day tournament, starting Friday, April 25.