Mira Costa claims inaugural girls’ beach volleyball pairs title over teammates

These were the championships, and yet the coach lounged. Leaning back in the sand. One knee crossed over the other. Fiddling with her phone to film her athletes like a proud parent and not a head coach.

Nancy Reynolds, head coach of Mira Costa girls’ beach volleyball, was recusing herself.

This was an important day; a ground-breaking day. It was the first pairs championship in Southern Section history. As the Wednesday afternoon wind at the Newland Beach volleyball courts in Huntington Beach whipped through banners wedged in the sand, the outcome became inevitable before the finals started.

A smattering of attendees clapped from beach chairs. Traffic groaned from the nearby Pacific Coast Highway. Charlie Fuerbringer and Erin Inskeep of Mira Costa would face Tanon Rosenthal and Savanna Lau of … Mira Costa.

“Let’s go, Costa!” a parent yelled, and no matter where they were sitting, it wouldn’t be wrong.

Mira Costa beach volleyball, as a team, hadn’t lost a match since 2012, stretching back to play in the Interscholastic Beach Volleyball League. It won the first Southern Section team title for beach volleyball last weekend. So Reynolds, her work done, plopped down in the sand under the cover of a Mira Costa tent and enjoyed.

The athletes in front of her didn’t much need a coach, if you asked her. Fuerbringer, one of the best indoor prospects in the country and daughter of former pro Matt Fuerbringer, is headed to Wisconsin; Inskeep, a Cal Poly beach commit, won the AAU 18U national pairs title over the summer; Rosenthal will be playing next year at the University of Arizona.

Through two sets, in a championship match that looked more like a hard-fought scrimmage, they fought Mustang against Mustang. Fuerbringer, setter extraordinaire in indoor play, flexed a cannon of an arm on spikes. Inskeep found every inch between borders of the sand court with her shots.

From a chair nearby, 6-foot-8 AVP pro player Ed Ratledge marveled, his company VolleyOC the tournament’s sponsor.

“Wouldn’t change that,” he said to a Southern Section representative, watching the pairs go back and forth. “Wouldn’t change that. Wouldn’t change that.”

“They are fluent in this game,” Ratledge said a couple of minutes later. “Absolutely, utterly fluent in this game.”

Fuerbringer and Inskeep won a narrow two sets, 21-19 on each, to take home the inaugural Southern Section pairs title. More hardware for a school that has become synonymous with volleyball in Southern California.

“We’ve obviously had a program for a long time,” Reynolds said. “That’s why we’re so deep. … Hopefully we can kind of lead the way and pave the way for all these other programs.”

The first year of Southern Section beach volleyball was an experiment in real time, as the volleyball committee had to seed Division 1 and 2 programs without previous history. Many schools, at times, struggled to balance beach programs with athletes also playing during the indoor club season.

“It’s been tough, trying to draw some of those athletes to come and spend some time on the beach,” said Harvard-Westlake coach Mitch Kallick, who coached sisters and California beach commits Bella and Alex Adishian in a back-and-forth semifinal matchup against Inskeep and Fuerbringer.

As club teams have risen in prominence, some of the tradition and importance of local high school programs has been lost, Reynolds said. But in time, assistant commissioner Mike Middlebrook said, the Southern Section hopes the high school beach season will take priority.

“That’s what colleges know — they come looking at club, obviously beach volleyball,” Middlebrook said. “And now we want to step up and say this, it’s more than just club.”

Fuerbringer, a junior, and Inskeep, a senior, have been striving for a high school beach title since they began playing together at Mira Costa. On Wednesday — against their teammates — they delivered.

“Kids still grow up wanting to do it — wanting to play for Costa,” Reynolds said. “Wanting to win a ring.”