COLLEGIATE SAND VOLLEYBALL
Day in the life: Sara
Hughes
USA Volleyball Beach High Performance product cruising as one of the collegiate sand game’s best
Photos by Don Liebig
niversity of Southern California sand volleyball coach Anna Collier saw something special in Sara Hughes that prompted her to offer the 16-year-old a scholarship when she was just a junior in high school. Hughes saw the early commitment the university was making to a new sport and eagerly accepted the offer. She became the first scholarship player to play sand exclusively. So far so good for early matchmaking. Hughes, who began her second season on the Trojans’ sand volleyball team in early March, may be the most natural sand player in the collegiate ranks. All she did in her freshman season was win the national pairs championship with senior partner Kirby Burnham as the duo compiled a 42-4 match record. Hughes’ rise to early stardom is no surprise to the coaches who watched her thrive
U
in USA Volleyball’s Beach High Performance program. At the age of 19 she already has vast international experience competing for the USA the past three seasons. She won one gold medal on the NORCECA Beach Tour in 2013 playing with Lane Carico, along with two silver medals the following year on the NORCECA Beach Tour. In the summer of 2012, she was fourth at the FIVB Beach Volleyball U21 World Championships in Halifax with professional star Summer Ross and won the bronze medal at the 2013 FIVB Beach Volleyball U19 World Championships in Portugal with Claes. Hughes is a member of the Trojan Athletic Senate and is majoring in business admin-
istration. VolleyballUSA caught up with Hughes on an impacted Wednesday schedule in March for a glimpse into the daily routine of the sand volleyball star.
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