Sand Specialists Chalmers And Crabtree Give Huskies Lift
April 27, 2017 | Beach Volleyball
SEATTLE - Most University of Washington students probably have not hit the beach in a while. Lindsay Chalmers and Anna Crabtree, however, are not most students. They are the two students on campus working the hardest to be beach bums during some frequently cold, seldom dry winter and spring months in Seattle.
Chalmers and Crabtree are the first two walk-ons in the history of the Husky Beach Volleyball team, Chalmers joining last season during her freshman year, and Crabtree signing on this season during the third year of her studies. They are the only players on the squad to not crossover with the indoor volleyball roster, so it's beach season year-round for the pair.
Both came to Washington first for the academics, but a passion for the sport and a curiosity about UW's newest intercollegiate team has Chalmers and Crabtree now playing key roles in helping beach volleyball grow and flourish at Washington.
Step one in that process often includes informing friends and family that yes, this is an NCAA sport, one where the Huskies are about to compete in the second annual Pac-12 Championships, with Crabtree and Chalmers teaming together at the No. 5 spot in the Husky lineup.
"A lot of people ask me 'Is it like a club sport? What is it?'" says Crabtree. "But people that I've played with in club and growing up that know about beach volleyball think it's super awesome."
"I get asked a lot if our games get rained out," to which Crabtree laughs and replies, "No, we're doing fine."
Evidence of that came this past weekend where Washington played through a rainy weekend at the new Husky Beach Courts and at Alki Beach, posting two-straight 5-0 wins over Boise State in their final tune-up for Pac-12s.
The recently completed sand courts off Montlake Boulevard on the north side of the IMA were another big step for the program, giving the Beach Dawgs a home on campus and adding to a foundation that Chalmers and Crabtree are helping to build.
Hailing from one of the hotbeds of beach volleyball, Manhattan Beach, Chalmers loved the sport but matching a school with the few scholarship spots available nationally was challenging, so Chalmers decided to choose for academics, "and then if they also happened to have a beach team, then great."
"I contacted the coaches once I got accepted into school," says Chalmers. "Then in the fall of 2015 we did a tryout with me and the coaches at Denny Field. They were explaining how the program isn't quite fully developed yet, and how it was kind of just me and the indoor girls, and I was totally fine with that."
There were some nerves, Chalmers says, about walking into a well-established team environment, a Husky volleyball squad that won the 2015 Pac-12 Championship and advanced to the NCAA Elite Eight, while Chalmers watched and had to wonder what everyone was like once they ran off the court.
"I knew who all the indoor girls were and I kind of idolized them a little, so I was a little intimidated by them and joining a set group," Chalmers remembers. "But they were really cool and really, really nice. It wasn't an issue at all, so that was a pleasant surprise."
Chalmers teamed with fellow freshman Destiny Julye last season, with the two earning a couple big victories in the Pac-12 tournament over pairs from Stanford and Cal.
This year, Chalmers got some friends to play with in the Sandbox, quite literally, as UW trained many days in the fall and winter at the indoor facility in south Seattle. Along with Crabtree joining the mix, indoor standouts Cassie Strickland and Melanie Wade made the transition to beach-only players for the year while they worked on Master's coursework.
"Last year was really fun but it's been nice obviously having another beach-only girl in Anna and having Cassie and Mel this year was also great," says Chalmers.
Crabtree was a standout indoor player, earning All-KingCo First Team honors at Newport High School in Bellevue, the same school where Husky freshman Avie Niece starred. Going on to college, Crabtree says there were a few smaller schools she looked at where she could have potentially played on the indoor team, but staying in-state and enrolling in the business school at Washington was the main priority. Crabtree is now majoring in Finance and Economics.
"I played on the indoor club team my sophomore year, which is not the most competitive thing in the world, but it was fun and I wanted to get back in it," says Crabtree. "I had played beach in the summers here, and after I graduated high school I knew some older friends and some of my club assistant coaches that played beach, so I played with them. (Husky beach assistant) Jen Baklenko was the club director my senior year of high school and she coached us for a short time. She reached out and asked if I wanted to try out, so I came to a few practices at the end of the fall and then joined."
While adding participation in an NCAA sport more than halfway through undergraduate course study might seem like a challenging disruption, Crabtree makes it sound like a perfect fit.
"I've always loved beach volleyball so it was an easy decision," she says. "I had an internship part-time almost all of last year, and I have an internship for this coming summer, so I didn't feel like I needed one during the school year, so it was easier to switch the time commitment."
It's just a different kind of internship now for Crabtree. "I've always been a very competitive person so it's definitely different from what my past few years have been but I really like it."
This year the Huskies have seen the best the Pac-12 and NCAA has to offer, and will do so again this week in Arizona. Crabtree and Chalmers are frequently going up against experienced scholarship players, for whom beach volleyball was certainly not an afterthought or a "wait and see" activity. But the two have more than held their own.
Crabtree was able to get all of one match under her belt, a victory against Portland, before the Huskies went and played at defending NCAA Champion USC, the No. 1-ranked team in the country. Still she felt most nervous the day before the Portland match, "but then we went down there and I was totally ready to go," she says.
"USC, there was definitely a moment where I thought they're very human, they're beatable. Our high school basketball coaches would yell that at us when we would get scared of these top-ranked teams," says Crabtree. She and Wade teamed up at No. 4 against the Trojans and lost two very close sets, 21-17 and 23-21. "We got there and we started pretty well and it was a close game, so we knew we could compete with them."
Fittingly, Chalmers and Crabtree are now teaming together, holding down the No. 5 spot since midway through the season. They've gone 5-2 together so far, with one narrow three-set loss at Stanford.
Chalmers, who recently applied to major in Public Health, thinks the two are playing well off each other now. "I played a lot with D.J. last year, and by the end of the season I knew all her tendencies. Right off the bat you kind of just have to figure out where your partner likes their sets, simple stuff," she says. "But now that we have a few matches under our belts, it's definitely getting easier. We didn't play with each other the whole season but we were practicing through the fall and winter."
The pairing makes sense for Crabtree, for very practical reasons. "It's fun because Lindsay is fast so when I don't pass great she gets it and I'm like 'Wow this is wonderful!'"
Chalmers and Crabtree are the first two walk-ons in the history of the Husky Beach Volleyball team, Chalmers joining last season during her freshman year, and Crabtree signing on this season during the third year of her studies. They are the only players on the squad to not crossover with the indoor volleyball roster, so it's beach season year-round for the pair.
Both came to Washington first for the academics, but a passion for the sport and a curiosity about UW's newest intercollegiate team has Chalmers and Crabtree now playing key roles in helping beach volleyball grow and flourish at Washington.
Step one in that process often includes informing friends and family that yes, this is an NCAA sport, one where the Huskies are about to compete in the second annual Pac-12 Championships, with Crabtree and Chalmers teaming together at the No. 5 spot in the Husky lineup.
"A lot of people ask me 'Is it like a club sport? What is it?'" says Crabtree. "But people that I've played with in club and growing up that know about beach volleyball think it's super awesome."
"I get asked a lot if our games get rained out," to which Crabtree laughs and replies, "No, we're doing fine."
Evidence of that came this past weekend where Washington played through a rainy weekend at the new Husky Beach Courts and at Alki Beach, posting two-straight 5-0 wins over Boise State in their final tune-up for Pac-12s.
The recently completed sand courts off Montlake Boulevard on the north side of the IMA were another big step for the program, giving the Beach Dawgs a home on campus and adding to a foundation that Chalmers and Crabtree are helping to build.
Hailing from one of the hotbeds of beach volleyball, Manhattan Beach, Chalmers loved the sport but matching a school with the few scholarship spots available nationally was challenging, so Chalmers decided to choose for academics, "and then if they also happened to have a beach team, then great."
"I contacted the coaches once I got accepted into school," says Chalmers. "Then in the fall of 2015 we did a tryout with me and the coaches at Denny Field. They were explaining how the program isn't quite fully developed yet, and how it was kind of just me and the indoor girls, and I was totally fine with that."
There were some nerves, Chalmers says, about walking into a well-established team environment, a Husky volleyball squad that won the 2015 Pac-12 Championship and advanced to the NCAA Elite Eight, while Chalmers watched and had to wonder what everyone was like once they ran off the court.
"I knew who all the indoor girls were and I kind of idolized them a little, so I was a little intimidated by them and joining a set group," Chalmers remembers. "But they were really cool and really, really nice. It wasn't an issue at all, so that was a pleasant surprise."
Chalmers teamed with fellow freshman Destiny Julye last season, with the two earning a couple big victories in the Pac-12 tournament over pairs from Stanford and Cal.
This year, Chalmers got some friends to play with in the Sandbox, quite literally, as UW trained many days in the fall and winter at the indoor facility in south Seattle. Along with Crabtree joining the mix, indoor standouts Cassie Strickland and Melanie Wade made the transition to beach-only players for the year while they worked on Master's coursework.
"Last year was really fun but it's been nice obviously having another beach-only girl in Anna and having Cassie and Mel this year was also great," says Chalmers.
Crabtree was a standout indoor player, earning All-KingCo First Team honors at Newport High School in Bellevue, the same school where Husky freshman Avie Niece starred. Going on to college, Crabtree says there were a few smaller schools she looked at where she could have potentially played on the indoor team, but staying in-state and enrolling in the business school at Washington was the main priority. Crabtree is now majoring in Finance and Economics.
"I played on the indoor club team my sophomore year, which is not the most competitive thing in the world, but it was fun and I wanted to get back in it," says Crabtree. "I had played beach in the summers here, and after I graduated high school I knew some older friends and some of my club assistant coaches that played beach, so I played with them. (Husky beach assistant) Jen Baklenko was the club director my senior year of high school and she coached us for a short time. She reached out and asked if I wanted to try out, so I came to a few practices at the end of the fall and then joined."
While adding participation in an NCAA sport more than halfway through undergraduate course study might seem like a challenging disruption, Crabtree makes it sound like a perfect fit.
"I've always loved beach volleyball so it was an easy decision," she says. "I had an internship part-time almost all of last year, and I have an internship for this coming summer, so I didn't feel like I needed one during the school year, so it was easier to switch the time commitment."
It's just a different kind of internship now for Crabtree. "I've always been a very competitive person so it's definitely different from what my past few years have been but I really like it."
This year the Huskies have seen the best the Pac-12 and NCAA has to offer, and will do so again this week in Arizona. Crabtree and Chalmers are frequently going up against experienced scholarship players, for whom beach volleyball was certainly not an afterthought or a "wait and see" activity. But the two have more than held their own.
Crabtree was able to get all of one match under her belt, a victory against Portland, before the Huskies went and played at defending NCAA Champion USC, the No. 1-ranked team in the country. Still she felt most nervous the day before the Portland match, "but then we went down there and I was totally ready to go," she says.
"USC, there was definitely a moment where I thought they're very human, they're beatable. Our high school basketball coaches would yell that at us when we would get scared of these top-ranked teams," says Crabtree. She and Wade teamed up at No. 4 against the Trojans and lost two very close sets, 21-17 and 23-21. "We got there and we started pretty well and it was a close game, so we knew we could compete with them."
Fittingly, Chalmers and Crabtree are now teaming together, holding down the No. 5 spot since midway through the season. They've gone 5-2 together so far, with one narrow three-set loss at Stanford.
Chalmers, who recently applied to major in Public Health, thinks the two are playing well off each other now. "I played a lot with D.J. last year, and by the end of the season I knew all her tendencies. Right off the bat you kind of just have to figure out where your partner likes their sets, simple stuff," she says. "But now that we have a few matches under our belts, it's definitely getting easier. We didn't play with each other the whole season but we were practicing through the fall and winter."
The pairing makes sense for Crabtree, for very practical reasons. "It's fun because Lindsay is fast so when I don't pass great she gets it and I'm like 'Wow this is wonderful!'"
Players Mentioned
/ Beach Volleyball
/ Beach Volleyball
/ Beach Volleyball
/ Beach Volleyball
/ Beach Volleyball
/ Beach Volleyball
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