University of Tennessee Athletics
AVP DIARY: A DAY AT THE BEACH
April 03, 2006 | Volleyball
April 3, 2006
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - University of Tennessee senior libero Amy Morris (Michigan City, Ind.) shared her thoughts from a memorable weekend in southern California:
"On March 24 and 25, I was given the opportunity of a lifetime. I was able to participate in the first-ever AVP (Association of Volleyball Professionals) Camp in Los Angeles, Calif. I learned from the greats of beach volleyball and started to develop the necessary skills needed to succeed on the beach.
"The first day of the camp, Holly McPeak ran the morning session. She is the winningest women's beach player ever, so naturally it was a great way to start the camp. Holly taught us the basics of beach volleyball. After playing volleyball for so many years, it was still a great feat for all involved to do the basics on the beach. We did simple drills like passing off a toss and running up and setting, things everyone in the camp could do in their sleep, but the beach is a whole new world.
"After the session, we had a catered lunch and then went back to the beach, but this time no volleyballs were involved. The next session, we were doing plyometrics with Karch Kiraly, Mike Lambert and their plyometrics coach. We saw the intense amount of training involved in preparing to play beach. After the session everyone was soaked in sweat and ready to be done for the day. We were done working out, but now we got to hear some stories from beach players telling us how they started and how their transition from indoor to beach was. It was very inspiring to here their stories and really get a grasp on the whole beach scene.
"The second day of camp featured Kerri Walsh, gold medalist at the 2004 Olympics. We worked on more hitting and blocking, which was extremely hard to do in the sand. I was shocked to see how I could not even move or get off the sand floor to hit. This day was very frustrating, but we were able to realize how hard it is to play beach doubles in the sand.
"After the morning session of playing, we had what was called classroom. We found out how to become a part of the AVP and how to market yourself as a player to sponsors. All of this information was extremely valuable to newcomers in the industry. After this was completed, we headed back to the hotel to shower and prepare for our dinner at Dolce in Hollywood.
"This whole experience was amazing. It was great to be a part of the first-ever AVP camp, which will now be sponsored every year because of the success. In addition to all that I learned that weekend, I was able to meet some of the top players from other universities over the country and become really good friends with them. This weekend was a dream.
Morris completed her Lady Vol career with the school record for total digs (506) and digs/game (4.69) accumulated in a season. She also has the career mark for digs/game (4.01) and sits second in total digs (1,338), especially impressive as the total was accumulated in just three seasons, as the Penn State transfer spent her first season as a Nittany Lion. She also set a school mark for digs in a match with 42 in UT's dramatic comeback from a 0-2 deficit for a 3-2 win on Nov. 26 at No. 7 Notre Dame.
