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On a warm, sunny Wednesday afternoon at the LBCC sand courts, Wilson’s top beach volleyball duo couldn’t wait to get off the court. Sophomores Simrin Adams and Sadie Calderone entered the tournament as the Moore League’s top-ranked duo, and had reached the finals after about four hours on the sand.
Adams in particular had waited a whole year for the opportunity to play for gold, after a second-place finish as a freshman in 2024. But she and Calderone were eager to get through the final round and get some shade.
Less than a half hour later, the Bruins were celebrating victory after a dominant 21-8, 21-11 victory in the final match.
“I’m super proud,” said Wilson head coach Jeremy Cook of his winning duo. “Simrin really deserved it, she had a heartbreak loss in the final last year, and then Sadie’s been amazing all season, so I’m really happy for her as well.”
Adams said that she was definitely thinking about last year’s result, calling this win “redemption” for her, but it wasn’t necessarily the main driver of her success this time around.
“It’s just fun to be out here, it didn’t really have a big effect on me. It’s just fun to be out here and to win,” Adams said. “I honestly think we just wanted to get it over with as fast as possible because it’s so hot. (We wanted to) take a business and not let up on any mistakes and just make it as clean as possible.”
The Bruins looked pretty flawless in that final, jumping out to a 12-4 lead in the first set and winning 21-8. Things were a little closer in the second with the Bruins leading 14-7 at the technical timeout, and they got out to a 19-7 lead before finishing off at 21-11 on a kill by Adams, who had a number of big spikes in the championship round.
The duo also earned an automatic bid to the CIF playoffs for pairs, which will be a new experience for Calderone.
“I didn’t make it last year, so I think it’ll be fun to see how far we can go, and just be able to play together and win,” Calderone said. “And playing with Simrin, we’re friends outside of volleyball, so playing with her is always a good time.”
Though Wilson claimed gold, it was also a great day for the Millikan Rams, who had the other three semifinal pairs. Adams and Calderone survived a tough battle against Millikan’s No. 2 pair of Sarah Thaut and Bethany Arnold in their penultimate match of the day, winning by a score of 21-16, 25-23.
The Rams pair led for most of that second set before Wilson was able to come back and take the lead at 17-16. Millikan responded with a 3-0 run to go up 19-17, getting an ace by Arnold to force a Wilson timeout.
The Bruins responded with a 3-0 run of their own to earn their first of three match points in the set, but the win didn’t come easily. Millikan earned a pair of set points as the set went into deuce, but couldn’t put the Bruins away. Ultimately, the set was decided on a disputed net call against Thaut, who was adamant that she did not make contact with the net, but the call went in Wilson’s favor to send them to the final.
The other semifinal was all Millikan, with the top pair of Aubrey Greene and Sophia Orbiso taking on teammates Lila Walters and Bella Bonales, the No. 3 tandem for the Rams.
Unfortunately, that match ended early in the first set due to an injury to Orbiso, who had severe cramping in her foot and was unable to continue. It was a heartbreaking end for her and Greene, who were forced to forfeit the match. That allowed Walters and Bonales to advance to the final, but also forced them to sit and wait while the other semifinal was being played. And it certainly appeared that Adams and Calderone were in a better rhythm to start out the match and take control early on.
“It seemed like being able to go straight from a match into that final benefited them,” said Cook of his duo. “I think the Millikan team, it might have hurt them that they had to sit for so long. I'd seen some really good volleyball out of that team today, and they seemed maybe a little gassed in the final there.”
Despite coming up short in the final round, Millikan head coach Antoinette De La Espriella was really pleased with how the entire program competed, and knows there’s more opportunity ahead for the Rams.
“I am so proud,” De La Espriella said. “Actually, the one game that stands out a lot to me was my four squad going up against the girls who won the whole tournament, they were so close to taking a set off of them and really showed out. I think that was kind of the energy that everyone had: we’re gonna go down swinging, we're gonna go down putting up a fight … And obviously unfortunate circumstances going into the finals. But the girls put in a lot of hard work through the season, and it's not over for us. We’ve still got CIF, so I think just kind of rolling this off our back and moving on to the next.”
De La Espriella gave praise to the No. 4 pair of Mikayla Brumbelow and Johanna Swerdloff, who pushed Adams and Calderone in their opening match with a final score of 21-7, 22-20.
Lakewood’s No. 3 duo of Jianne Lara and Emily Nanez pulled an upset in the Round of 16, earning a 13-21, 21-19, 15-12 victory over Long Beach Poly’s top pair of Aleeya Salima and Avery Milburn.
Next up is the CIF-SS playoffs, with the team competition up first. Brackets for the team championships will be released on Apr. 17, with the competition running from Apr. 22-May 3. The CIF-SS individual (pairs) championships will be played May 6-7.
