There’s already a surprise team emerging in girls’ volleyball.
Harvard-Westlake, under first-year coach Morgan Wijay, is 7-0 and won its division of the Lakewood tournament last week. Wijay left Bishop Alemany to take over a Wolverines program that went 13-15 last season and 2-8 in league. The Wolverines have a showdown match with 3-0 Marymount on Thursday at Marymount.
Maya Stillwell, a 6-foot-4 senior middle blocker who has committed to Northwestern, gives Harvard-Westlake a force in the middle. Another middle blocker is Penn commit Lauryn Lewis, the daughter of former Laker Larry Lewis. Junior opposite hitter Sophia Cotter is committed to Princeton. Outside hitter Kylie Parker is another top player. …
The Palisades football team’s game against Dymally this week was canceled because Dymally did not have enough players, but the Dolphins were able to schedule a game against El Camino Real on Sept. 19.
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Devon Newberry is closing in on two years as a professional beach volleyball player. Yet for the last 731 days, “professional” has always felt like an elusive label.
The former UCLA standout is accustomed to life as a beach volleyball player — hauling her equipment on the beach, tugging her bag across the uneven sand while weaving through sunbathers and surfboards. She’s used to hearing provisional bleachers creak under sunscreen-slathered fans as music buzzes through nearby portable speakers.
There’s charm in that chaos. But it’s nothing like the entrance Newberry made Friday at the Intuit Dome.
Above her, the sweeping halo scoreboard glowed, flashing beneath the thump of blasting pop anthems. Around her, where NBA chants once echoed, beach volleyball fans cheered. And strangest of all, tons of sand created a faux indoor shoreline.
After two years chasing it, Newberry found her label.
“I walked into the Intuit Dome today and I was like, ‘I feel like a professional athlete walking in,’” Newberry said. “I haven’t felt like that as a beach player. There’s very rare moments when you’re like, ‘Wow, I am really a professional athlete.’ And when I was going underground here and looking all around me, I was like, ‘I really am a professional athlete.’ And that’s because we’re playing at the Intuit Dome.”
In what began as a head-scratcher for the players themselves, 300 tons of sand were poured into the Intuit Dome, turning the Clippers’ arena into a pop-up beach — where the L.A. Launch kept their perfect run afloat for the start of AVP League Week 5.
The Launch struck first and last — with Megan Kraft and Terese Cannon opening with a win, and Hagen Smith and Logan Webber closing it out — both pairs dismantling the San Diego Smash. Sandwiched between those victories, Palm Beach Passion’s men’s and women’s teams both made quick work of the Miami Mayhem.
The moment Newberry described — descending into an NBA arena re-imagined as a sand-strewn battleground — was the AVP’s moonshot: to re-imagine the sport in lights, not solely sunlight.
“Playing in such an amazing place, brand new building, with everything going on, with the new building around here, it’s really cool,” said 2016 Olympian Chaim Schalk. “To get to play at such an iconic arena is an honor.”
Logan Webber of the L.A. Launch spikes over Chase Budinger of the San Diego Smash at the Intuit Dome on Friday night.
(Joe Scarnici / Getty Images)
Beach volleyball rarely has ventured beyond its coastal roots. But at the Intuit Dome, the sport embraced a new direction.
“This shows that beach volleyball is growing and it’s trying to adapt to the world we live in, finding a new way for fans to interact with the players, and new ways for the sport to be exciting,” said Chase Budinger, a former NBA player who became a beach volleyball player. “This will get more people in the stands because it’s so new and so different.”
In place of sun-worshiping fans camped out on makeshift bleachers, parents lounged on cushioned seats as kids nestled beside them balancing chicken wings and pizzas on their laps.
The sport welcomed a combination of newcomers hunting for Friday night entertainment and AVP devotees.
“There’s so many people who love beach volleyball, and so many people who would love beach volleyball if they were just given the opportunity to go watch,” Newberry said. “And not everybody can make it out.”
Change comes with tradeoffs. With no wind, the court became something of a power chamber — the compact sand lending itself to higher and cleaner jumps, the still air enabling blistering serves and monstrous spikes that might have drifted wide on the beach.
Rallies became quicker and tighter. The margin for error shrank, tightening the grip on the crowd.
“For a lot of people watching beach volleyball for the first time, it’s really hard to conceptualize how wind, how deep the sand is, might affect play,” Newberry said. “So it feels like more of an even playing field which allows everybody to watch really entertaining volleyball.”
By re-imagining the boundaries of where its sport can potentially thrive, the AVP might have sketched out a novel blueprint for other sports.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if other sports follow and start expanding their ideas of where they could play,” said Olympic silver medalist Brandie Wilkerson. “I’m excited to see where this is going to go and see other sports try to catch up.”
When the Bradford family walks together on a beach, at an airport, in a restaurant, eyes turn. They aren’t just tall, they’re giants. They aren’t a basketball family — they play volleyball. On Memorial Day, mom, dad, daughter and son were at the beach looking for games.
Lee Bradford was a 6-foot-7 middle blocker at Pepperdine in the 1990s. His wife, Sara, is 6-1 and played basketball at Fordham. Their oldest daughter, Carissa, was the 6-2 City Section volleyball player of the year at Granada Hills, played at Tennessee and South Alabama and is now head coach at Bates College.
Their son, Derek, is 6-8, won a CIF title with Royal and now trains with the USA beach volleyball team. Their son, Grayson, is a 6-11 senior at Mira Costa and plays for a state championship on Saturday in Fresno. He’s committed to UCLA.
Even the youngest in the family, 12-year-old daughter Brooke, is 5-10 and headed for volleyball stardom. Talk about good height genes — no giant shoes go unused in this family.
The Bradford volleyball family (left to right). Derek (6-foot-8), Lee (6-7), Sara (6-1), Brooke (5-10), Carissa (6-2), Grayson (6-11).
(Courtesy Bradford family.)
Dad gave his kids a choice growing up. “I love the sport and offered free private lessons,” he said.
They took him up and the rest is history. Lee has been a teacher at Granada Hills and used to be an assistant coach to Tom Harp. He eventually moved his family to Manhattan Beach after driving to the South Bay for years for club competition.
“We made a really good decision four years ago to go to a high level club program,” he said. “It’s been a great journey.”
At 6 feet 11, Grayson Bradford towers over everyone playing volleyball for Mira Costa. He’s headed to UCLA.
It’s a weekend for championships. The Southern Section baseball will be held Friday and Saturday at Cal State Fullerton and Blair Field in Long Beach.
The Southern Section softball finals are Friday and Saturday in Irvine.
The state track and field championships will be Friday and Saturday at Buchanan High in Clovis (temperatures will hit triple digits). The state tennis championships are Saturday in Fresno.
The City Section softball finals are Saturday at Cal State Northridge.
St. John Bosco has unleashed a closer extraordinaire in junior Jack Champlin. Last week, in the bottom of the seventh inning with the score tied, Villa Park had the winning run on third and Champlin was brought in to get a strikeout. He threw 2 1/3 hitless relief before the Braves won 5-4 in nine innings.
He was inserted into the game with a 2-0 count, one runner on and one out in the seventh inning against Corona. He walked the first first batter, then got a strikeout and fly out to end the game.
Jack Champlin comes through as the closer. St. John Bosco beats Corona 2-0. On to the Division 1 final. All-Trinity League. pic.twitter.com/7s0Lh5dny6
He said of the situation, ““I love it,” he said. “There’s close to 1,000 people and it’s electric. I didn’t feel any pressure, didn’t feel nervous. It’s just fun to compete against all these Power 5 players.”
Jack Champlin of St. John Bosco picked up the save in 2-0 win over Corona.
(Nick Koza)
That kind of closer’s mentality and confidence should help St. John Bosco in Friday’s 7 p.m. Division final against Santa Margarita at Cal State Fullerton. Champlin will gladly take the ball whenever coach Andy Rojo offers it.
“I haven’t had a blown save,” he said.
That’s not the kiss of death. That’s a teenager who wants the ball with the game on the line.
There’s also the state swimming championships at Clovis West High. …
The City Section will hold a Tuesday semifinal doubleheader in baseball for the Open Division at Cal State Northridge, with El Camino Real playing Birmingham at 3 p.m. and Venice facing Sylmar at 6 p.m.
