Molly Turner: Following the perfectly unorthodox path to success

Molly Turner: Following the perfectly unorthodox path to success

It’s difficult to blame Grand Canyon beach volleyball coach Kristen Rohr for forgetting. That when she looked around at her group of players, the one that began the 2018 season ranked No. 10 in the country, and said how they had chosen every one of them to come there, she forgot about Molly Turner.

“I was like, ‘Not me,’” Turner said, laughing, on SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter. “I was the only one that wasn’t chosen by any of the coaches.”

Coming out of a small club in Naperville, Illinois, a suburb west of Chicago, Turner wasn’t specifically chosen by any college program.

Her first choice was more of a blanket choice: Any school in California would do. So she sent out emails to “every single school I could,” she said, naming, specifically, USC and Long Beach State. She didn’t hear back. So she tried the neighboring states, finding Grand Canyon University, a school in Phoenix with an enrollment of just more than 20,000.

“I’ll pretty much do anything to be on your team,” she recalled writing the coach in an email. “She said ‘I can’t really guarantee anything’ so I went and took a risk. I kind of went for volleyball even though I didn’t really have a spot yet but I got invited to walk on and I just kept playing.”

And playing quite well, quite fast. A 5-9 freshman season preceded an 18-8 sophomore campaign, one that began with an 8-match win streak. Then came a junior season in which Turner and Tjasa Kotnik won 22 matches to just three losses, culminating in All-American honors.

“Honestly the only difference between my freshman, sophomore and junior seasons was that I moved to San Diego over the summer and trained there,” Turner said. “So maybe that was it.”

Not that everyone noticed.

“One time we went to practice at GCU and there were some people on the courts, and we had our jerseys on and asked them to leave so we could practice, and they were like ‘Well, who are you with?’” Turner said, laughing, per usual. “‘We’re the beach volleyball team.’ It was small when I originally got there but it’s grown so much.”

As has Turner. To the point that, rest assured, after a sensational rookie season, one directly succeeded by her senior year at GCU, there is no more forgetting about Molly Turner.

After losing early in qualifiers in Austin and New York City – granted, she had to play against then-top-ranked Canadians Melissa Humana-Paredes and Sarah Pavan in New York – Turner qualified in Seattle, San Francisco, Hermosa and Chicago.

Three weeks after finishing 13th in her hometown, she played her first international tournament, a NORCECA alongside Falyn Fanoimoana, winning gold over UCLA’s Megan and Nicole McNamara.

“I like the path I went through,” Turner said. “It was pretty tough, and it still is kinda tough.”

Indeed. Turner still works three jobs. She trains four to five times a week to go along with conditioning and weight lifting. She’s learning how to recover. Not the most orthodox of systems, but then again, when has Turner’s path – cut from her indoor team, ignored by most every college aside from GCU, moving to San Diego on her own, to California for the AVP while working three jobs – has been orthodox, anyway?

“I don’t want to stop,” she said. “I just enjoy it so much.”

Jaksot(500)

SANDCAST U: Cal Did What?! UCLA's Powerhouse Court 1; TCU Balling

SANDCAST U: Cal Did What?! UCLA's Powerhouse Court 1; TCU Balling

Welcome back to SANDCAST U, Madison Fitzpatrick's breakdown of all things NCAA Beach Volleyball. On this episode, she chats about: - The stunners that Cal's beach volleyball team pulled off -- an upset over USC? Come again? - UCLA's tour de force early in the 2025 NCAA Beach season, with headliners in Sally Perez and Maggie Boys - USC going 3-1, with a puzzling loss to Cal, extending the parity in the NCAA, while Zoe Henson and Maddie White are playing exceptional, as is Ashley Pater - Stanford dropping to USC and UCLA -- but beating Cal, with help from Taylor Wilson and Charlotta Bell And a whole lot more! SHOOTS! *** WE'VE GOT NEW MERCH! Check it out here!! Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCASTVB. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products!  We are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Get a FREE year's supply of Vitamin D by purchasing with that link.  If you want to receive our SANDCAST weekly newsletter, the Beach Volleyball Digest, which dishes all the biggest news in beach volleyball in one quick newsletter, head over to our website and subscribe! We'd love to have ya! https://www.sandcastvolleyball.com/

13 Maalis 20255min

Audrey Koenig: The Indoor Player of the Year Who Chose Beach

Audrey Koenig: The Indoor Player of the Year Who Chose Beach

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, features Audrey Koenig, the 2023 ACC Co-Player of the Year – alongside Louisville’s Anna DeBeer – who is currently headlining the Florida State Beach Volleyball team. Her record, 9-2 in 2025 thus far, suggests an experienced, top-flight talent. Yet she’s only eight months into beach volleyball. What?? Indeed. We chat all about that, as well as: What it was like for Koenig to play her final indoor match, after playing indoor volleyball for 13 years The difficulties of transitioning from indoor to beach volleyball How beach volleyball is the perfect way to train for indoor, but not necessarily vice versa How far she wants to take volleyball, be it returning to one of the many professional indoor leagues in the USA or head to the beach, where she would be an immediate prospect to get scooped by an elite defender And, as always, a whole lot more. SHOOTS! *** WE'VE GOT NEW MERCH! Check it out here!! Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCASTVB. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products!  We are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Get a FREE year's supply of Vitamin D by purchasing with that link.  If you want to receive our SANDCAST weekly newsletter, the Beach Volleyball Digest, which dishes all the biggest news in beach volleyball in one quick newsletter, head over to our website and subscribe! We'd love to have ya! https://www.sandcastvolleyball.com/

12 Maalis 202553min

Toni Rodriguez: An All-Time High Leading to An All-Time New Beginning

Toni Rodriguez: An All-Time High Leading to An All-Time New Beginning

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, features Toni Rodriguez, who finished the 2024 beach volleyball season on the highest of all high notes: winning the inaugural AVP League alongside MVP Geena Urango, as well as three straight medals of every color on the Beach Pro Tour with Molly Turner. Now, Rodriguez is gearing up for a 2025 season that will look decidedly different: competing with Urango in the League as a blocker while defending behind Kylie Deberg on the Beach Pro Tour. Big moves! Tri and Toni talk about that, as well as: What Toni’s fall successes were like, and how it all happened at once Why she’s deciding to make the move to defense The role of sports psychologists in her (and Tri’s) career ascent Her big goals for the 2025 season, including defending the AVP League title and looking at a berth into the 2025 World Championships And, per usual, a whole lot more. SHOOTS! *** WE'VE GOT NEW MERCH! Check it out here!! Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCASTVB. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products!  We are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Get a FREE year's supply of Vitamin D by purchasing with that link.  If you want to receive our SANDCAST weekly newsletter, the Beach Volleyball Digest, which dishes all the biggest news in beach volleyball in one quick newsletter, head over to our website and subscribe! We'd love to have ya! https://www.sandcastvolleyball.com/

5 Maalis 20251h 2min

SANDCAST U | Madness In Hawaii: LMU's Historic Start; UCLA Dominates; USC Up And Down

SANDCAST U | Madness In Hawaii: LMU's Historic Start; UCLA Dominates; USC Up And Down

Welcome back to SANDCAST U, where Madison Fitzpatrick breaks down all things NCAA Beach Volleyball. On this week's episode, Madison goes through the madness in Hawaii, where it was bedlam: USC, UCLA, Stanford, ASU, LMU, Hawaii, and TCU all beating each other up. Nobody came unscathed -- and it was AWESOME! SHOOTS!  *** WE'VE GOT NEW MERCH! Check it out here!! Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCASTVB. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products!  We are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Get a FREE year's supply of Vitamin D by purchasing with that link.  If you want to receive our SANDCAST weekly newsletter, the Beach Volleyball Digest, which dishes all the biggest news in beach volleyball in one quick newsletter, head over to our website and subscribe! We'd love to have ya! https://www.sandcastvolleyball.com/

27 Helmi 20256min

Trevor Crabb: The Legacy-Chasing Chapter of A Beach Volleyball Career Begins

Trevor Crabb: The Legacy-Chasing Chapter of A Beach Volleyball Career Begins

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, features Trevor Crabb, always one of our most popular guests who is onto a new phase of his career: Partnering with Phil Dalhausser for the 2025 AVP season and partnering with Cody Caldwell for the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour season. We chat about all of that, as well as: How the partnership with Dalhausser and Caldwell came about Why he hasn't played as much international beach volleyball as of late, and his plans for that moving forward His thoughts on the AVP League And, of course, whiskey, because it's Trevor SHOOTS! *** WE'VE GOT NEW MERCH! Check it out here!! Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCASTVB. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products!  We are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Get a FREE year's supply of Vitamin D by purchasing with that link.  If you want to receive our SANDCAST weekly newsletter, the Beach Volleyball Digest, which dishes all the biggest news in beach volleyball in one quick newsletter, head over to our website and subscribe! We'd love to have ya! https://www.sandcastvolleyball.com/

26 Helmi 202552min

John Mayer, Billy Allen: NCAA Coaching Our Brains Out

John Mayer, Billy Allen: NCAA Coaching Our Brains Out

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, features John Mayer and Billy Allen, the longtime hosts of the popular Coach Your Brains Out podcast who, as their success as college coaches shows, know a thing or two about coaching in beach volleyball. Mayer is arguably the best coach in NCAA Beach Volleyball, having taken LMU from the doldrums to the top of the WCC, and nearly to the top of the NCAA. Allen is in his second year as an assistant coach for Stanford. Meanwhile, Mewhirter, serving as a moderator, is in his debut season with Florida State. They chat about all things coaching, including: - Ecological dynamics vs. a more repetition-based approach to coaching - Bruce Lee’s philosophy in coaching, emphasizing adaptability above all else - What each of the three coaches has learned thus far in their respective coaching journeys - How to navigate athlete buy-in and understanding And so, so much more. This was such a blast to do, and the Knights of the Coaching Round Table are planning on making this a semi-annual podcast. SHOOTS! *** WE'VE GOT NEW MERCH! Check it out here!! Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCASTVB. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products!  We are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Get a FREE year's supply of Vitamin D by purchasing with that link.  If you want to receive our SANDCAST weekly newsletter, the Beach Volleyball Digest, which dishes all the biggest news in beach volleyball in one quick newsletter, head over to our website and subscribe! We'd love to have ya! https://www.sandcastvolleyball.com/

19 Helmi 20251h 21min

SANDCAST U: Previewing the 2025 NCAA Beach Volleyball Season | Madison Fitzpatrick

SANDCAST U: Previewing the 2025 NCAA Beach Volleyball Season | Madison Fitzpatrick

Welcome to the debut of SANDCAST U! Our lovely new host, Madison Fitzpatrick, a former star beach volleyball player for Florida State turned next big media star in volleyball, provides a comprehensive preview of the upcoming 2025 NCAA Collegiate Beach Volleyball season. The episode covers key teams, players to watch, and the overall landscape of collegiate beach volleyball, highlighting the strengths and challenges of various programs. With insights into powerhouse teams like USC and UCLA, as well as dark horses like TCU, the episode sets the stage for an exciting season ahead. Let us know what y'all think!  SHOOTS! *** WE'VE GOT NEW MERCH! Check it out here!! Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCASTVB. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products!  We are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Get a FREE year's supply of Vitamin D by purchasing with that link.  If you want to receive our SANDCAST weekly newsletter, the Beach Volleyball Digest, which dishes all the biggest news in beach volleyball in one quick newsletter, head over to our website and subscribe! We'd love to have ya! https://www.sandcastvolleyball.com/

17 Helmi 202512min

Troy Field: The Evolution, Challenges, and Future of Beach Volleyball

Troy Field: The Evolution, Challenges, and Future of Beach Volleyball

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, features Troy Field, one of our most popular recurring guests and one of the most popular players in all of beach volleyball. Troy has had one helluva journey, and now that he will be partnering with Theo Brunner, he has played with a who’s who of elite talent in USA Volleyball. Now with Brunner, Field has a tall task ahead of him: qualifying for the AVP League. Troy and Tri Bourne chat about all of that, as well as: How Troy and Theo came to be partners Their thoughts on the AVP League, and why growing pains were inevitable Tri’s refreshed view on the sport of beach volleyball as a whole The importance of the Contender Series, and other valuable information about what happens to players who do not make the AVP League And, as always, a whole lot more. SHOOTS! *** WE'VE GOT NEW MERCH! Check it out here!! Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCASTVB. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products!  We are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Get a FREE year's supply of Vitamin D by purchasing with that link.  If you want to receive our SANDCAST weekly newsletter, the Beach Volleyball Digest, which dishes all the biggest news in beach volleyball in one quick newsletter, head over to our website and subscribe! We'd love to have ya! https://www.sandcastvolleyball.com/

12 Helmi 20251h 14min

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