Gritty Lancers use 1st year in sport to find feet

On the edge of the waterless Rillito River and in the shadow of the scenic Santa Catalina Mountains, Tucson has its own little beach.

Salpointe Catholic coach Heather Moore-Martin helped bring sand volleyball to the desert, at least at the high school level. The Lancers finished their debut season on Wednesday afternoon at Tucson Racquet and Fitness Club, their home venue.

Although the 3-2 loss to Buckeye Youngker closed out the year, Moore-Martin hopes it’s just the beginning of a new era on Southern Arizona.

“I hope we’re just going to step into sand volleyball and it’s just going to become part of what we do here and it won’t be such a foreign concept,” she said. “It’ll just become more available and the opportunity will be there for girls to experience volleyball in a different way.”

Seventeen schools in Arizona participate in the sport, which runs parallel with the rest of the outdoor spring activities. Each team sends out five teams of two players — think doubles tennis — to play best-of-three matches.

Shoes are optional, for both the players and spectators.

“I just bring my sandals to the court and I’m ready,” freshman Alanna Duarte said.

Duarte partnered with fellow freshman Peyton Lewis as Salpointe’s No. 1 duo, and they finished their season undefeated. They’ve both played indoor volleyball for some time but had never taken the sand until roughly a year ago.

“I think it’ll take off really quickly,” Duarte said. “I hope this starts something big.”

The 5-foot-4-inch Lewis is a setter when she plays the indoor game but does it all on the sand. She said she enjoys getting a chance to attack about 50 percent of the time.

“You have to run faster and it’s not a hard court, you don’t have shoes,” Lewis said. “It makes you a lot more athletic and it increases your vertical (leap), which is really helpful.”

Moore-Martin believes the high school game could lead to more college scholarships for players. The UA, Arizona State and Grand Canyon make up three of the nation’s 39 Division I teams.

“We’ve got to give our kids this opportunity,” she said.

Immediately after Salpointe’s match Wednesday, Desert Sand Volleyball — a club team coached by Claire D’Amore — took the same courts for practice.

That, Moore-Martin said, is proof of how popular the Olympic sport has become. She hopes that other local schools in the area will begin to form teams of their own; Catalina Foothills, Sahuaro and Sierra Vista Buena have all shown interest.

Southern Arizona could one day form its own division in sand volleyball. If that happens, Moore-Martin might just get her own little beach on Salpointe’s campus.

“When we had our first sand match here, the very first day, it was one of the best days of my life,” she said. “It was really just so exciting to have those girls out here and to have the parents watching and just to be in this environment, looking at those mountains and blue sky. There’s nothing better.” 

Click the photo below to check out video highlights of Salpointe Catholic's sand volleyball match against Buckeye Youngker.