Hall nets crown on the beach

Apparently Kiley Hall believes the best preparation for winning an NCAA championship is, well, winning a national championship.

The Newport Harbor High product, preparing for her senior season with the University of Texas women’s volleyball team, did just that recently, capturing the A Flight (top division) crown at the third annual Collegiate Beach Volleyball Championships in San Diego.

Hall, a 5-foot-8 defensive specialist, teamed with Longhorns teammate Ashley Engle, a 6-3 All-American outside hitter and setter as a sophomore last season, to win four matches at the one-day event, held April 20 at Mariner’s Point.

Hall and Engle, an Esperanza High product, swept Taylor Carico and Jessica Gysin from USC in the title match, after sweeping Nebraska’s Kori Cooper and Amanda Gates in the semifinals.

The Texas twosome won two pool-play matches to advance to the semifinals and helped Texas win the team title, topping San Diego, Nebraska, USC, Clemson and Wisconsin at the event presented by CBS College Sports Network, the American Volleyball Coaches Assn. and the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals.

Growing up in Costa Mesa, beach volleyball was nothing new to Hall, about whom teammates joke that she was introduced to the beach game in the womb.

“My mom played on the beach and, growing up, I played with my dad and my mom,” Hall said. “But I never really played competitively on the beach until my last two years of high school.”

Hall said playing in the sand is part of the off-season training regimen at Texas, for which she has played 85 matches and 168 games in three seasons. She helped the Longhorns reach the round of 16 in the NCAA Tournament her freshman season and the quarterfinals her last two campaigns.

Former Newport Harbor teammate Alyson Jennings was a senior libero for the Longhorns this past season.

Hall said she was paired with Engle by her coaches and she didn’t know what to expect in San Diego.

“We complemented each other really well,” Hall said of her tall and talented partner. “She did all the blocking and I used my ball-control skills.”

Hall, who was a valuable hitter at Newport Harbor, also took her turn pounding sets, an experience she said she savored.

“It’s always a treat to get to hit,” she said. “In high school, my height wasn’t much of a disadvantage. But once you get to college, you’re playing with girls who are 6-3 and 6-5, so that has kept me out of the front row. But I take pride in my swings in practice, and I had a few good hits [in the tournament victory].”

Hall said she also enjoys the added responsibility placed on each player in the two-person beach game, a departure from the six-player lineup indoors.

“It’s harder to cover the entire court,” she said. “You both have to be on, because there aren’t as many people to depend upon. You don’t have the entire team carrying you.”

Hall, majoring in heath promotion and fitness, said she is thoroughly enjoying her experience in Austin, where she hopes her team will be able to contend for an NCAA title next fall.

“One of the best choices I ever made was to come here,” she said. “Our fans and our support system are absolutely incredible. The coaching staff is awesome and we have the best team chemistry. And everything else complements volleyball. We have the whole football craze here and Austin is a great music city. It’s the full college experience.”

Hall said winning the beach title ranks among the top experiences of her volleyball career and she is hoping Texas can top that by topping the NCAA field next season.

But she knows that will be no day at the beach.

BARRY FAULKNER may be reached at (714) 966-4615 or at barry.faulkner@latimes.com.