California Connection for Lions' Volleyball squad

Of the eight recruited newcomers to Lion volleyball, six come from sun-soaked southern California, giving the team a majority of players from the Golden State.

Columbia is hardly different from the rest of the Ivy League in this aspect. According to Head Coach Carolyn Elwood, virtually every Ivy League squad will send a majority of southern California volleyball players to the floor.

"There are more high-level club programs in southern California and so many great players, that just some are going to be available," Elwood said.

One of the main reasons for this is the weather. While volleyball is an indoor year-round sport, it has been popularized by its beach influence. Manhattan Beach, Calif. is the home to the relatively new sport of beach volleyball, which has centered the volleyball world in southern California.

"They are surrounded by it all year. There's a whole culture around it," Elwood added, who is a native of southern California herself.

"It's more competitive on the West Coast. Club is more strenuous. It's just not as rigorous on the East Coast," sophomore Joanna August, a Los Angeles native, said.

"It's the Mecca of women's volleyball," sophomore team captain Katie Beauregard from Huntington Beach, Calif. added.

Still, the rest of the nation is catching up to the West Coast. While the '80s and '90s saw Cal State-Long Beach, University of the Pacific, and several Pac-10 schools dominate the volleyball ranks, lately schools such as Nebraska, Texas, and defending NCAA champion Penn State have risen to national prominence. So why is the Ivy League still grabbing all of its players from the same region?

"Southern California tends to be an affluent area, and many students can choose to go to top schools. There is a peer pressure to go Ivy League schools," Elwood said.

There is a similar theme among Columbia's last two recruiting classes. Not only are the players from the same region, but they all have similar backgrounds. The majority of the southern California recruits come from private schools and play for club teams that don't have free membership.

"There is a huge draw to the Ivy League from California. I think there's a lot of pressure on kids from southern California to go to Ivy League schools," Beauregard says. "It's definitely not a cult, but has an appeal to a girl who fits that type of description."

"On the West Coast it's more of a focus. It's definitely a trend," says first-year player Cassie Bryan of Los Angeles.

"Fourth graders are starting to play volleyball in California, whereas those opportunities aren't available in other parts of the country," Elwood said.

Bryan started playing in the fifth grade, but at the time it was mainly "a social thing, like a play date." Over time it became more competitive for Bryan, as she took a path familiar to her teammates of going from private school to top-level club team.

Senior Rachel Miller is the only player not from southern California who is expected to start this season. Coming from Nashville, Tenn., Miller was immersed in a basketball culture popularized by Tennessee women's coach Pat Summit. Still, Miller played volleyball as well as playing basketball and running track. While Miller acknowledges the volume of talent in southern California, she also believes "there's always been good players from across the country."

Her high school team won four consecutive state titles while she was there and became "darlings of the media." However, most of her private school team either isn't playing volleyball in college or wasn't recruited by local colleges.

"It makes me sad that there are a lot of good players in my area who don't know about these opportunities. It's a lack of knowledge," Miller said. "It's unfortunate that some people from other parts of the country might be overlooked. If [Coach Elwood] saw a tape of a player she liked, she wouldn't hesitate. But not everyone has the opportunities or knowledge."

Combine a coach with southern California roots and a volleyball culture amidst a group of people with tremendous resources, and the Lions will get exactly what it has--a women's volleyball team with a SoCal suntan.