When it comes to the girls’ volleyball program, Pompano Beach is appropriately named. That’s because the Golden Tornadoes owe much of their success — including a 14-2 record after Tuesday night’s win over Mourning — to the skills their players have learned on the beach. Tornadoes coach Billy Strachan said the beach game builds more versatile players because there is no substitution.
He also praises the conditioning benefits of playing on the beach — running on the sand is much tougher than on a hard court — and said switching between versions of the game keeps players from burning out mentally.
“I encourage my girls to play on the beach in the summer because you get a million reps, and you see the ball coming at you in different ways,” Strachan said. “You learn to read the hitter faster.”Strachan’s most accomplished beach player is 5-9 senior Kristina Pellitteri, who has committed to a sand volleyball scholarship from Florida State. The NCAA will introduce sand volleyball this spring. “I believe Kristina is the best right-side hitter in the county,” Strachan said. “She is cranking the ball.”This past summer, Kristina and her sister Stephanie won a AAA Florida Beach Volleyball tournament, playing against adults. Stephanie, a former Pompano Beach star, is now at FSU, also on a sand volleyball scholarship.
Kristina, whose younger sister, Brittany, is also on the Pompano Beach team, prefers the sand game.
“I like that in beach you are always touching the ball because there are just two players,” she said. “You are part of every play.”
Other experienced beach players on the Tornadoes are 5-10 junior middle blocker Savannah Davis, 5-9 freshman outside hitter Nikki Espsito and 5-10 freshman Cassey Calhoun, who plays middle, setter and right side.
Pompano Beach’s indoor specialists are 5-11 senior outside hitter Peyton Schlosser, 5-10 senior setter Bailey Webster and 5-10 senior middle hitter Carliegh Calhoun. Webster, a reserve last season, has stepped up to play the pivotal role as setter, which has allowed Pompano Beach to cruise, with the exception of losses to Palmer Trinity and Cardinal Gibbons. In the first loss, Pompano Beach was victimized by Palmer’s 6-2 Paulina Prieto — who has committed to four-time defending national champion Penn State — and an improved supporting cast. “They unleashed Paulina on us,” Strachan said, “and they have the most aggressive-serving team I’ve seen.”In the second loss, the Tornadoes were able to take one set off a Gibbons team that is ranked 18th in the nation by ESPN.
One of the Tornadoes’ best wins this season came Oct. 1, when they beat Chaminade. The Tornadoes trailed 14-9 in the third set before rallying to win 16-14. That effort and others have convinced Strachan his team will be a serious threat to win a Class 5A state title next month. District playoffs begin in a couple of weeks, and Strachan sees a potential date with Jensen Beach in the regional semifinals as perhaps the biggest obstacle to the final four. “The heart of our team has been together four years,” he said. “I feel we have a really good shot to make a run.”