Game remains in Pestolesi’s genes

Kari Pestolesi came by some of her beach volleyball prowess as naturally as her golden tan. One might even suggest the source of the UC Irvine standout’s ample skills goes more than skin deep — to her DNA.

Pestolesi’s mother, Diane, was a three-time All-American at the University of Hawaii, where her father, Tom, also twice earned All-American honors.

Growing up in Huntington Beach, while Diane dabbled on the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals beach tour and Tom became a renowned coach at Estancia High, Newport Harbor and now Irvine Valley College, Kari and her two brothers, Tommy (who will be a junior on the Long Beach State men’s team) and Danny (who will be a junior at Edison High) found volleyball, and the beach at the center of their universe.

“Our parents would drag me and my brothers and all our family friends down to the beach and we’d be rolling around on the trash cans when we were like 3 years old,” Kari Pestolesi, who will be a sophomore in the fall, said. “That was the funnest thing we’d ever done. Then, we got too big for [the trash cans], so we started playing [volleyball] with them.”

Though Kari was a decorated youth soccer player and she briefly tried track and field at Edison, she has basically lived a volleyball existence.

“In eighth grade, I made the Olympic Development Program for soccer, but all it did was make me mad,” she recalled. “I thought ‘Why couldn’t I make something like this in volleyball.’ ”

It wasn’t long before she had made a name for herself on the volleyball court. She was named MVP of the Junior Olympics in the age 15 division in 2003, then went on to be a three-time All-CIF Southern Section standout at Edison.

As a 5-foot-11 outside hitter, she drew limited recruiting interest and chose UCI over her only other scholarship offer from Long Beach State.

Last fall, she burst onto the collegiate scene, earning Big West Conference and American Volleyball Coaches Assn. Region Freshman of the Year laurels. She led UCI in kills (491) and service aces (40) and her 349 digs were second on a team that finished 21-11 and was third in the conference.

All this, despite battling a bone spur on one big toe that required surgery after the 2007 season.

But as strong a player as she is indoors, she may even be better in the sand.

Pestolesi and UCI teammate Devon Sutherland won the Big West two-person beach tournament title in April and Pestolesi then emerged from 36 hopefuls at a tryout camp in May to become the youngest player to earn one of four spots on two American beach teams that will compete at the World University Championships, today through July 7 in Hamburg, Germany.

Pestolesi, 19, will be paired with Olivia Waldowski, 24, a 6-2 standout out of UC Santa Barbara.

The other American team will consist of UCI alumna Keegan Featherstone, who played for the Anteaters from 2002-2005, and Lauren Fendrick from UCLA.

Pestolesi said she prefers the beach game to indoors and would one day like to follow in the footsteps of beach legend Misty May-Treanor, whom Pestolesi grew up around while May-Treanor first played for her father at Newport Harbor, then worked as an assistant coach for him at Irvine Valley.

“It’s more fun,” Kari Pestolesi said of the beach game, which she credits with developing the ball-control skills that make her so valuable to UCI Coach Charlie Brande.

“On the beach, you kind of have to learn how to do everything,” Pestolesi said. “It kind of carried over [indoors].”

Pestolesi said she has no idea what to expect at the World University event, but she hopes it will help lead to an opportunity to play in an AVP tournament very soon.

“I’d love to get that opportunity, if someone were to offer to play with me,” said Pestolesi, who could compete in the AVP without compromising her NCAA eligibility, as long as she did not accept prize money. “If I [played] with someone older and more experienced, I think I’d catch on pretty quickly.”

She has, of course, already picked up plenty, sometimes just by listening at the dinner table.

“We always talk volleyball during dinner,” Pestolesi said. “I feel sorry for anyone who doesn’t play volleyball who comes to our house.”

Pestolesi believes the knowledge she has already digested, exceeds that of her peers and gives her an advantage.

“Most of the girls at the tryout camp were like ‘Bump, set hit,’ ” Pestolesi said. “There’s a lot of stuff about the beach game that just went right over their head. I don’t think I can necessarily outplay them, but I can outsmart them. I don’t really have a choice, because I was stuck with [the knowledge] from my mom and my dad.”

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