In celebration of beach volleyball’s Senior Night, parents and friends gathered around the three beach volleyball seniors, April 21. Ella Bergsmedh (12), Tracy Wang (12), and Angeline Nguyen (12) gave their speeches as an ode to their past four years of beach volleyball. Prior to the ceremony, the team swept the court with a 5-0 win against Escondido. Bergsmedh said this was the program’s first official Senior Night in history.

“In the past, if we’ve had any seniors, they get a poster and there’s not really much else,” Bergsmedh said. “This year, we actually did speeches, got to walk, take photos, and we got gifts. It was definitely more organized than we’ve ever had before. I think part of that is because of coach Mia, the varsity coach. Our senior class is her first graduating class since she started coaching beach at Westview. I think she wanted to honor us more.”

Bergsmedh said that having an official Senior Night is reflective of the program’s growth. 

“I think a lot of people, when they start beach, kind of felt the same way I did, where it’s more of a secondary sport that you do to keep refining your skills for indoor,” Bergsmedh said. “Obviously, it’s under the Westview volleyball umbrella, but it’s almost like its own separate thing now because we have a lot of girls that only play beach now and who don’t play indoor. It’s grown more into its own, which is really cool to see.” 

Even though Escondido was set up to be an easier opponent, Wang said she and her partner Haiden Weiner (11) went into the game wanting to play as usual, and once they established a lead, they were able to experiment with different moves. Wang and Weiner won their first set, 21-4, and the second, 21-5.

“What my partner and I agreed on is just to keep it simple and do what we know,” Wang said. “Later on, we were able to try out things that we wanted to try during games. We tried out different spots on the court, different shots, and different serving [techniques]. I know [Weiner]was trying to hybrid serve, so I thought that was cool.”

Wang hasn’t had the same partner all four years, or even all season, which she says has been difficult because she has to adapt to different playing styles. Bergsmedh said it’s rare to have the same partner across multiple years, although she has been with her partner Lilly Sweidel (11) since her sophomore year. Bergsmedh said her partnership with Sweidel has been one of the reasons she kept coming back to beach volleyball. 

“I met Lily during my JV season for indoor volleyball,” Bergsmedh said. “We really didn’t get super close until our first beach season together. I think since we were friends already it was pretty easy to play together because we weren’t nervous playing in front of each other. Once you play together a lot, you learn each other and what balls [your partner] usually like to get more, whether they wanna block or if they wanna play more defense. It makes it easier to communicate because there’s no friendship barrier, so you can kind of just talk on the court and keep a conversation going to make sure you’re getting all the balls up.”

Ngyuen wasn’t able to play this season as a player due to an ACL injury, but she still found a way to be involved as the JV and novice coach. As a coach, Nguyen said she learned how to encourage players, helping them get out of tough mental spots that come from playing a partner sport.

“There’s only two people on a court, which is a lot different than indoor,” Nguyen said. “So, if you make a mistake everything’s kind of on you, and it’s harder to get out of a rut. You can’t sub out either. It’s just you and you have to get out of your own head.”

Although Nguyen said beach volleyball has served as a fun break from indoor the past years, it has become something the players are growing to love as an individual sport. Bergsmedh says it has taught her valuable lessons.

“The more I played, the more I grew to love the sport and really appreciate it as its own separate entity,” Bergsmedh said. “It’s taught me to never give up and to always keep trying. Sometimes, you just need a little bit of momentum or spirit to keep going and that’s more than enough to turn things around.”