What was Devon Newberry doing?
She and Jaden Whitmarsh didn’t belong on this stage, a Challenge on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour. Sure, they were both phenomenal as juniors, good enough to land scholarships at UCLA. Fine, they were standouts there, too, winning more than 100 matches each. And yea, they’d enjoyed some success together on the AVP, taking a seventh in Hermosa Beach, a ninth out of the qualifier in Huntington. They’d even won a few on the Futures level of the Beach Pro Tour, a bronze out of the qualifier in Pompano Beach, a gold out of the qualifier in New Zealand.
But a Challenge?
C’mon.
Who were they kidding? They didn’t belong in a Challenge. Not even in the qualifier.
Such was the negative spiral of Newberry’s thinking entering last week’s Challenge in Yucatan, Mexico – despite the laundry list of accolades that could have gone on for paragraphs more.
“Before I walked into this tournament I had a lot of negative self-talk,” Newberry said. “I didn’t believe I belonged on this stage, even the qualifier.”
Don’t belong?
How many could have said that this weekend, a tournament that featured multiple teenagers competing for medals and two teams – Newberry and Whitmarsh, and Switzerland’s Yves Haussener and Julian Friedli – from the qualifier standing on the podium? Was it easy? Of course not.
Five times would Newberry and Whitmarsh drop a set, only to win in three, a perfect 5-0 record in three-setters, including both qualifier matches and the bronze medal match against fellow Americans Teegan Van Gunst and Kim Hildreth. Once, they even stared down the barrel of a 2-10 deficit – and promptly won an absurd 15-12.
You might see a comeback like that once a decade in beach volleyball.
But once is, as Newberry and Whitmarsh now know, all you need. One comeback begets the opportunity for another, and another, until you’re standing with a bronze medal around your neck, with the peers with whom you once felt you didn’t belong clapping and applauding and celebrating the very tangible evidence that, yes, you belong on this stage.
“Never stop believing,” Whitmarsh said. “That’s my biggest message to anyone watching. Never stop believing because you never know what’s going to happen.”
Newberry and Whitmarsh were the brightest highlight in an overall successful tournament for USA Volleyball teams, most of whom were either young – see: Whitmarsh and Newberry – or new partnerships. Five American teams dotted the top-10, and Toni Rodriguez and Kylie DeBerg were excellent in their debut, beating both Savvy Simo and Abby Van Winkle and another new duo in Julia Scoles and Lexy Denaburg. Maddie Anderson and Brook Bauer, too, were a highlight, notching a win over Olympians Monika Paulikiene and Aine Raupelyte and nearly upsetting eventual silver medalists Tanja Huberli and Leona Kernen of Switzerland.
The Beach Pro Tour continues this weekend at an Elite16 in Quintana Roo, Mexico. Competing for USA Volleyball is Kristen Nuss and Taryn Brasher, Terese Cannon and Megan Kraft, Kelly Cheng and Molly Shaw, Rodriguez and DeBerg, Hildreth and Van Gunst, Scoles and Denaburg, Anderson and Bauer, and Corinne Quiggle and Chloe Loreen. For the men, Miles Evans and Chase Budinger are the top seed in the qualifier, followed by Chaim Schalk and James Shaw, and Tri Bourne and Evan Cory .
