When graduate student Reagan Hope originally committed to Oregon, it was for indoor volleyball. But when her high school club volleyball season was cancelled because of COVID-19, she could only train outdoors and, in the process, started her journey with beach volleyball that's led her to Tempe.
"When I went to Oregon, there was a place I could do both," Hope said. "I was like, 'Let's do this, that'll be fun.' Because I had zero pressure and zero expectations, I think I was really successful and just had a good time, and then I ended up falling in love with the sport … Once I had that seed and once indoor wasn't everything I wanted it to be, I was like, 'I'm playing full-time beach.'"
Her teammate, senior Arden Besecker, had an alternate pathway to ASU's beach volleyball team. Growing up in Texas, a volleyball-centric state, Besecker primarily played indoors but was introduced to beach through a court at one of her club coach's houses.
"I had a knack for it, and I just kept doing it, and would do both for a really long time," Besecker said. "My sophomore year, I was deciding about recruiting, which way I wanted to go, and I liked beach so much more. Being outside, you touch the ball more, way chiller vibes."
Hope's story, while unique to the Sand Devils as one of the few team members to play indoor in college, highlights the overlooked differences between the two sports.
From a broad view, volleyball seems straightforward regardless of setting — bumps, sets, spikes. Beach volleyball, however, comes with its own set of challenges and rule shifts, the largest being the scoring and pairs.
College indoor volleyball is a best-of-five sport with each set going to 25; beach plays a best-of-three format where each set goes to 21. Unlike indoor, which features six-on-six games with constant substitutions based on matchups, beach volleyball is played in a two-on-two setup.
"That's where our sport's really interesting, because you're competing against each other for spots, but you also need each other to be successful, so it requires our athletes to be super selfless," head coach Kristen Glattfelder said.
While indoor has designated roles with liberos, outside hitters and middle blockers, both players on the sand have to be reliable in all aspects of the sport. Hope, who played middle blocker during her freshman season at Oregon, found the transition difficult at first before settling into what she knew best — blocking and hitting.
The modifications also affect how the athletes play the game from a skill perspective, with regulations far more stringent in beach volleyball and a well-rounded skill set paramount.
"The setting (is) really different," Besecker said. "You can take it longer, and it's more up and down, and then you're not allowed to open-hand tip. There (are) no subs, it's just you and your partner on the court … if you're not doing well, you've got to figure it out right then."
It's illegal in beach volleyball to "dink" the ball over the net with their fingertips, or an "open hand," as it is indoors. A player must use their knuckles, palm or heel of their hand to redirect the ball.
With only two people on the sand and movement much more limited compared to wood, conditioning is a huge part of team preparation. Explosive lateral and vertical motions, routine in indoor settings, are infrequent because of the elemental factor of sand.
"You definitely have to be in better shape," Hope said. "You can't be nearly as far back; you don't have time. You don't jump as high realistically, so you have to get closer and get your feet underneath it."
While indoor volleyball continues to be an immensely popular sport, beach volleyball's popularity has continued to grow with increased exposure and its spot in the Olympics. For Besecker and Hope, who felt that playing indoor growing up was necessary to get recruited, that sentiment is slowly changing.
"Now girls can train just beach, and I think people are getting so much better so much younger because you're only doing one sport," Hope said.
Edited by Niall Rosenberg, Jack McCarthy and Pippa Fung.
Reach the reporter at pvallur2@asu.edu and follow @PrathamValluri on X.
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Pratham Valluri is a sports reporter at The State Press. He is a junior majoring in sports journalism with business and data analytics minors. He’s in his 5th semester with The State Press working previously as an opinion writer.
