Caitlin Racich has taken her prowess in volleyball outdoors.
The former Dos Pueblos High star has gone from being a member of Pepperdine’s women’s indoor team to becoming the school’s first female sand volleyball scholarship recipient.
Former DP star Caitlin Racich, right, is playing with Mater Dei High's Sara Hughes at the FIVB Beach World Junior Championships in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. (Photo courtesy of USA Volleyball)
The school recently added women’s sand volleyball as a NCAA sport.
Racich trained on the sand all summer and was selected to the U.S. Junior Beach Team for the FIVB Beach Junior World Championships in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, which starts Wednesday.
Racich is playing with Sara Hughes, a junior at Mater Dei High. They are the USA-2 team. Hughes recently played for the U.S. U19 team at the FIVB Youth World Championships in Croatia.
They lost in the second round of qualification play to Austria’s Teresa Andessner and Christina Wallinger, 22-24, 21-16, 15-6, in 47 minutes
The USA-1 women’s team is Tara Roenicke (Alta Loma) and Rebecca Strehlow (Long Beach). Roenicke is a world champion. She and former partner Summer Ross (Carlsbad) made history at the 2010 edition of the Junior World Championships by capturing the gold medal and becoming the first U.S. team of either gender to medal at the tournament.
The five-day tournament in Nova Scotia will include 122 athletes (29 men’s and 32 women’s teams) from 25 countries.
