SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Santa Clara beach volleyball opens up its 2016 season with a home match Thursday afternoon against Portland. The Broncos begin the first NCAA sanctioned season of the sport at the Los Gatos High School courts at 2 p.m.
Thursday's dual match kicks off a stretch of three contests in three days; the 20th-ranked Broncos (DiG Magazine) will head to Sacramento to face San Francisco and Cal on Saturday.
"We've been working on some skill-related things and some tactical-related things, and to put that practice into a match and see what works and what doesn't is something we're looking forward to," third-year beach head coach Aaron Mansfield said. "It's always exciting to put a Santa Clara jersey on. All of the girls are really looking forward to it."
The Broncos went 7-7 as a team in dual match play last season. During the 2015 indoor fall campaign, Santa Clara reached its third NCAA Tournament in the last four years. All but one player on the Bronco beach roster also plays on the indoor team.
"We continue to learn and believe that there is tremendous benefit for our indoor girls to play and learn the game," Mansfield said. "There are a lot of mental and physical lessons you learn on the sand that are really applicable to the indoor game — mental toughness, mindful practice — all the things we preach in indoor training are the same things we preach in outdoor training."
Danielle Rottman will pair up with Nikki Hess and Sabrina Clayton partners with Kirsten Mead as Santa Clara's top two teams. Rottman and Hess posted a 3-1 record as a pairing last season while Mead and Clayton went 1-3. Each of the four girls played exclusively in Santa Clara's top two pairings from a season ago.
"All four are very all-around skilled volleyball players," Mansfield said. "Nikki and Kirsten are bouncing back from injuries, and playing about as well as they've played in the past. Sabrina and Dani continue to improve on their games. Dani is a four-year sand player and we're really glad she came back to continue competing for us."
Katrina Inch and Santa Clara's lone beach-only athlete — Sarah Vaccaro — team up again after spending most of last season at the No. 4 position. They combined to go 12-8, and had the most wins of any Bronco pairing. Jensen Cunningham played 14 matches at the No. 3 position and Mary Shepherd posted 10 match wins in 2015.
"Sarah and Katrina had a really good season last year," Mansfield said. "We look for them to be good in the wins column and continue to improve.
"Jensen went from being a blocker to a defender and that's a big change in the sport. She has taken on that challenge in the way that we hoped she would and she's getting a lot better. Mary continues to show our team how it should compete on a daily basis."
The Pilots began their first season of beach volleyball Tuesday, and fell 5-0 to Saint Mary's. On Wednesday, they lost 5-0 to San Francisco and 4-1 to San Jose State. Portland is one of seven West Coast Conference schools that fields a beach volleyball team. The 2016 season features a WCC Championship, and the winner of that event earns an automatic berth to the inaugural NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship.
"This sport continues to grow and I think it's pretty special for us that we were here in its infancy," Mansfield said. "To see other schools adopt it is exciting. There's now more structure to the in-season format and to have a postseason tournament is something we're really looking forward to — improving match-by-match and putting ourselves in a position to win the conference championship."
Santa Clara will rely on its collective experience throughout the season; the Broncos have a relatively long-tenured program now in its fourth year. Mansfield noted that the because preseason training and the regular season are short — the latter lasts five weeks — the Broncos have a increased sense of urgency to get better before and during the season.
"At the beginning of our training session this year, it has been less about the basics of the game," Mansfield said. "The conversations with each individual and team are advanced in terms of offensive strategies and defensive schemes. Our starting point this year is much higher. The girls are starting to ask questions that indicate they are thinking about the game in an advanced way."
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