Beach Patrol

BY MARK MOSCHETTI • FOR GO HUSKIES MAGAZINE

Natalie Robinson had a plan — or at least she thought she did.

Arriving at the University of Washington in the summer of 2017 after a standout high school volleyball career, she was going to play two years with the Huskies’ national-caliber indoor team. Then, she would make a full-time switch to the still-fledgling beach volleyball program.

During that fall of 2017, that’s how it worked out. From there, she was going to redshirt during the 2018 winter/spring beach season. But it didn’t happen that way. The beach team needed her — and a dozen of her indoor teammates — right away to help fill out a 17-player roster.

“They didn’t have a beach-only format,” Robinson recalled. “There was no offseason training and not enough people to field a team without the support of indoor.

“In some ways, it was really exciting. They had this program that no one had paid attention to at that point, or people hadn’t invested in. I took on ownership to help improve the program.”

Zip ahead to 2023. Washington now has a squad on which 13 of the 14 athletes play exclusively beach ball. The team goes through a rugged schedule, which this year included 13 of the preseason top-20 teams and is part of a Pac-12 Conference that is just as power-packed on the sand as it is on the hardwood.

And the Huskies won. They just wrapped up their first-ever 20-victory season, going 21-15. They reached as high as No. 12 in the national rankings. All season, Washington was in the conversation for the NCAA Tournament, but ultimately was the first one out when the 16-team national bracket was finalized.

“We came in with high expectations this year, knowing who we were bringing back from last year’s team, namely Natalie and Chloe Loreen (Robinson’s partner in the No. 1 spot), who are one of the top pairs in the country,” said UW Coach Derek Olson. “Then with some of the transfers we got to come in from other schools, we knew were going to have a deeper team.”

The beach version of the game is growing in popularity rapidly. During the 2023 season, 93 schools sponsored the sport, most are at the Division I level, although several are either D2 or D3 programs.

“Every year, it’s growing — even through COVID, which is a healthy sign,” Olson said.

For those such as Robinson who focus on the beach game, one of the biggest attractions is being out there for the entirety of every match with your playing partner. There’s no position specialization, and you don’t get subbed out.

But getting used to playing the sand game after a lifetime of playing indoors isn’t easy.

“Indoor girls often struggle at first because on the beach, you’re responsible for every single skill — assists, serving, setting, blocking, defending,” Robinson said. “Once they figure out the movements, they have success.”

Added Loreen, who played indoors at Santa Clara before coming to the UW in 2020, “If you’re weak in one area, that’s the area that’s going to be targeted, so it forces you to develop every aspect of your game. You get to do everything — pass, defense, set, swing. It’s really fun.”

In Seattle, that fun can even include lessthan-ideal playing conditions.

“Our team motto is ‘Gritty by nature,’” Loreen said. “No other teams in the nation are playing in 40-degree weather and rain. Last year at our home tournament, we played through hail and rain. You just have to have great attitudes about it and have to push through, and that creates this extra level of toughness and grit.”

For seniors Robinson and Loreen, this was their second year together. They went 28-7, all in the No. 1 position. (They were 18-9 at No. 1 last season.) On May 4, they were named first-team All-Americans — the first Huskies ever to garner that honor for the beach game. Loreen has been invited to join training camp with the U.S. national beach program.

“I was just hoping I would get my chance to play with Chloe,” Robinson said. “Last season, Derek paired us together right away, and it just really worked.”

“We have great chemistry, and we have great communication,” Loreen said. “It took us a while to get used to each other and learn how the other one ticks. But once we did, we just established this ability to communicate about everything in a productive way.”

Washington also had solid pairs at other spots on the 2023 ladder. Sophomore Kendall Mather and junior Piper Monk-Heidrich were 18-15 at No. 2. Seniors Paloma Bowman and Scarlett Dahl were 16-7 at No. 3, while senior Teagan DeFalco and junior Mary Sinclair put together a 14-7 record at No. 4.

“You can try and match what you think is a complementary skillset — like one tall blocker and one shorter defender — but if the chemistry is not there it’s not going to work,” Olson said. “On the contrary, you might have a team that you wouldn’t think works well, but for whatever reason, they have synergy together.”

Olson took over the Washington program in 2022 after four years at California, the last two as acting head coach and interim head coach. In 2021, Cal had four wins against top-10 opponents. His first Husky team went 12-20 before this year’s record-setting 21-15 campaign.

“The game is something I know really well, but it’s always different when you’re in a new spot trying to build a program, essentially,” he said. “Last year, we kind of learned that in a way, anything is possible, and we had two really good wins (3-2 vs. No. 11 Cal and 3-2 vs. No. 8 Hawaii). Especially for the returners, it kind of showed that it’s possible.

“It’s different to be consistently there, but they knew it was possible,” he added, “and they knew what they needed to work on coming into this year.”

As she prepares to move on, Robinson, whose next stop is law school in Texas, can look back at that spring of 2018 and take some significant sense of satisfaction in what has been built and is still being built under Olson’s guidance.

“A place like Washington, with such amazing resources and such amazing programs in every other sport totally has the potential to develop an elite beach program, which we’re seeing now,” she said. “Derek has come in with principles of play that he lives by, and therefore the program lives by them. He takes ownership of every single part of the program and is working to improve it.”

Added Olson, “one of the main reasons for doing what I do is I want it to be an environment where people can reach their potential.”

And, along the way, help the Husky program reach its potential as well.