Diggin’ the competition

You get a funny look at the human psyche when you run a volleyball tournament, especially when you run a “draw” tournament, where playing partners are drawn randomly from a hat. Almost everyone worries about how they’ll play, how they look in a swim suit, will they disappoint their partner. Like any sport, you can have good days and bad days and I’m sure there’s much of the same before a tennis tournament or a team golf tournament.

Last weekend, it was the beach volleyball crew’s turn at Main Beach for the Fall Classic doubles draw. The Fall Classic, and its sister tournament, the Spring Classic, are city-sponsored doubles tournaments open to everyone. The highest division, the “A,” attracts some of the best local and regional amateurs, and the “B” gets the up-and-comers, the never-gonnas and the wily old masters.

I experimented this year with a draw format, where partners are paired from a higher and lower seeded group and then you play with them throughout the tournament, but I think I’m going back to the “King and Queen of the Beach” format, where you play a round robin with different partners and win points individually, which then seeds you into the playoffs. Everyone seems to like having their tournament destiny in their own hands better and it’s a much more social format, which is a big part of what beach volleyball is all about, aside from the whole exercise/competition thing. But the round robin can be fickle because the luck of the draw can give you an easy set of matches with good partners or a bad one. Inevitably the cream rises to the top, but it makes for some interesting pairings.

Playing on the beach is hugely affected by the weather. You always hope for no wind and moderately warm temps and last weekend delivered with high 70s and not a puff of wind Saturday. The result is much more dramatic volleyball because players can pass and set with greater accuracy setting up more frequent attacking spikes, which in turn lead to crowd-pleasing defense and exciting rallies. Gina Hause and Lina al Bargash won the Women’s A, with Hause winning her third Laguna title.

Hause is a few grains of sand over 5 feet tall, but she attacks the ball ferociously and has great speed and ball control. She even won the venerable Estero Beach tournament in Mexico, the world’s largest, proving you don’t have to be tall to play on the beach. Hard hitting Justin McIntee and promising rookie Christian Madrigal pulled off a stunning comeback to beat solid play by Don Saunders and wily Juan Silva (“El Queso,” known for his tricky shots) to win the Men’s A just as the sun set. Christian won the “B” just one year ago and now seems poised to get even better.

In the B division, Paul Ocker and Brian Taber continue to improve their games as they rolled through the playoffs over a good showing by Larry Weng and veteran Keith Wichner. Repeat winner Jennifer Nunnikhoven and partner Lee Bexiga used strong serving to beat Dara Sandrini and Allison Motherway.

“Good Human” champions included last year’s winner, Mike McKibben, who stayed home with the kids so his wife Marcela could play; Julie Appel, who filled in for a fallen men’s player; and runner-up Don Saunders, whose toddler really, really wanted his dad’s attention in the middle of the championship match.

A special thank you to the crew from the city of Laguna, Ron Lutz, Susan Cannon and Suzanne Shaw for all their support and the excellent equipment.

KIRK MORGAN runs the beach volleyball program for the City of Laguna Beach.