Voting underway for first member of Mira Costa’s Women’s Beach Volleyball Hall of Fame
Medalists in the Mira Costa Beach Pairs Invitational Tournament were Mustang team (left to right) Lea Ungar/Kelli Barry (silver), Keala Rusher/Pippa Monk-Heidrich (gold) and Alexia Inman/Maddie Micheletti (bronze).
With the continuing growth of beach volleyball and the Manhattan Beach Open considered the most prestigious tournament in the sport, Mira Costa High School has implemented its Women’s Beach Volleyball Hall of Fame to recognize past greats of the game.
The Hall of Fame’s first member will be selected among three candidates who are true South Bay legends that had exceptional talents on the volleyball courts and in the classroom.
Holly McPeak, a three time Olympian from Manhattan Beach, won the bronze medal in beach volleyball in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.
Barbra Fontana, a Mira Costa Class of 1983 graduate and four year starter at Stanford University has won championships in twenty various professional volleyball tournaments.
Nina Matthies is a volleyball legend and is the current head sand volleyball coach at Pepperdine University. After thirty-one years on the sideline of the indoor team, Matthies has taken the helm of the Wave’s beach team.
Voting and full bios of each candidate can be found on the Mira Costa Beach Volleyball website (miracostabeach.com), Voting runs through May 1.
With women’s sand volleyball becoming an NCAA sport, more girls are turning their focus to the beach game. Mira Costa’s girls are the two-time defending champions of the Interscholastic Beach Volleyball League (IBVL) and now have 43 players among its varsity, junior varsity and frosh-soph teams.
Led by head coach and 2000 Olympic gold medalist Eric Fonoimoana, this year’s girls beach volleyball team features Pepperdine-bound Skylar Caputo, future USC Trojan Katrina Kernochan, and Tulane-bound duo Claudia Lemieux and Keala Rusher.
The Mustangs kicked off their season hosting the inaugural Mira Costa Beach Pairs Invitational Tournament with 22 teams from six schools.
Competing against Mira Costa were Redondo, Palos Verdes, South Torrance, Valencia and Notre Dame Academy, All three Mustang teams were medalists and the all-Mira Costa championship game featured three freshmen.
Keala Rusher and Pippa Monk-Heidrich defeated Lea Ungar and Kelli Barry for the gold and Alexia Inman and Maddie Micheletti earned bronze medalists.
The Mustangs opened the IBVL last Saturday winning all three games against Marymount before shutting out Harvard-Westlake. Mira Costa will play West Torrance at 9 a.m. and Redondo at 11 a.m. Saturday at Dockweiler State Beach.
Starting with eight teams in the spring of 2012, the IBVL has expanded this season to include 55 varsity teams in 11 divisions in addition to 20 junior varsity squads.
Varsity teams competing in the Bay Division include Mira Costa, Redondo, Palos Verdes, South and West. Mira Costa has two teams (JV and Frosh/Soph) playing in the Bay JV Division with Palos Verdes, West, Palisades Charter and Thousand Oaks.