Exciting Time to be an Eagle: 1st Beach Volleyball Season Underway
College of the Siskiyous is excited to have Jessany Petricevic lead a new beach volleyball program, which opened its first season with two matches during a tournament at Monterey Peninsula January 26 and will play this Friday at Southern Oregon University in Ashland.
Petricevic is also head coach of the Yreka High School indoor volleyball team. She's a 2011 Yreka High School graduate who played volleyball for Shasta College in Redding and was a two-year starting Libero for University of Maine, Fort Kent, where she also served as head coach in 2016-17.
Her assistant beach volleyball coach is Eagle head indoor volleyball coach Lyndi Scholl, who is also College of the Siskiyous' overall volleyball program director.
Scholl described Petricevic as an amazing coach. "We're lucky to have her with us. She's helping to motivate the girls. She's awesome at coaching individualized work."
The Eagles have no beach volleyball facilities at their Weed campus and will have no home matches this first season. They're traveling for practices to the Redding Sand Courts or SOU in Ashland two or three times a week.
While Feather River has had a strong beach volleyball team for several years (including a loss in the state championship match in 2022), this is the first year for beach volleyball in the Golden Valley Conference. The conference includes the Eagles, Feather River, Shasta, and Lassen.
Scholl, a beach volleyball player at San Jose State University from 2015-18 and assistant coach for College of San Mateo in 2019-20, said she's "super excited" to have the new program at Siskiyous, something she's been working toward for three years. "It's good to be back in sand. It's like coming home coaching beach volleyball for me, and it's cool to see the girls start to play and enjoy it."
Most of the players on the beach volleyball roster were also members of the Eagles' indoor volleyball team this past fall, including Jade Crawford of Bakersfield and Isabella Colombo of Naselle, WA, who were both All-Conference 1st Team award winners, and Ashley Quizon of Denver, who was All-GVC Honorable Mention.
Also crossing over from the Eagles' indoor team are Josie Cole of Yreka, Amelia Gastelum of Seaside, OR, Madison Noble of Upper Lake, Hailey Rock of Orland, Madelyn Truelock of Galt, and Mikaylah Alcantar of Mount Shasta, who was the indoor team's manager.
New to the Siskiyous volleyball program are three beach volleyball players from local high schools: Jacqueline Bridwell and Emmalynn Hanna of Yreka and Samantha Campo of Weed.
Unlike an indoor volleyball roster, there are no positions listed for beach volleyball. "You have to do it all," Scholl said.
In beach volleyball, two-player teams compete in a series of six best-of-three sets, five of which count in the scoring. No coaching is allowed during a game, and each player needs to do all the skills: serving, passing, attacking, digging, being vocal, etc.
It's all about ball control, according to Scholl, who said she and Petricevic have been excited to see the team's growth in that area. A lot of physical conditioning is needed, and Scholl described beach volleyball as a "more crafty" sport than indoor volleyball. "You can't just swing hard every play. You can't jump as high from the sand. It's a strategy game."
Highlights from the Eagles' first two matches included a 21-10, 21-17 victory by Crawford and Noble playing in the No. 4 spot against De Anza. Also in the team's 1-4 loss to De Anza, Colombo and Hanna took their match to three sets before losing 21-8, 13-21, 12-15 in the No. 3 spot.
In a 0-5 loss to Monterey Peninsula, two Eagle pairs went to a third set: Quizon and Truelock lost in the No. 1 spot 21-19, 14-21, 10-15; and No. 2 team Colombo and Hanna lost 14-21, 21-19, 11-15.
Other Eagle pairs competing on opening day were Cole and Gastelum, and Rock and Campo.
Scholl said the pairs will vary at times as the team discovers who plays well together.
"It's fun for the girls, and they're taking full advantage of it," said Scholl. "It's hard to be mad when you're rolling around outside in sand. This team is laying a new foundation and putting their stamp on our program."
The Eagles are scheduled to compete against Southern Oregon University in Ashland this Friday and continue their preseason until starting conference play against Lassen at Feather River on March 22nd.