GCVA Beach Team

If you are looking for a reason to make the switch from indoor to beach here are some to name a few. Hear from our players on why they love playing on the GCVA national team!

Photo cred: Camden Dean 📸

Our last senior spotlight for the class of 2026 is Sloane Ranney!

Sloane has been on the national team for 4 years. She will be attending Grand Canyon University where she will be continuing her beach career. She will be majoring in exercise science. Fun fact about Sloane is that her older sister is Coach Bryce.

✨Fav national team memory? Going to North Carolina and staying with and traveling as a team.

🥲What are you going to miss most? Going to team dinners and getting ice cream at tournaments.

🤔Advice to underclassmen? Be nice to your coaches and teammates and have fun!

It has been such a pleasure to see that little 12 year old from summer beach grow into such an amazing player. Sloane is always that steady partner you want to have on your side of the net. She can always find a way to score & always is calm under pressure. She handles the pressure of the game with such grace. GCU is getting a good one, you will be greatly missed Sloane!

Today’s senior spotlight for the class of 2026 is Taylor Ranney!

Taylor has been on the national team for 4 years. She will be attending Grand Canyon University where she will continue her beach career. She plans to major in mechanical engineering. Fun fact about Taylor is her & her twin Sloane are both playing beach at GCU next year.

✨Favorite National team memory? Going to hermosa every year with the team.

🥲What will you miss most? Seeing all my friends at practice.

🤔Advice to underclassmen? Be a good teammate and also don’t bring your phone to the ocean!

From being this tiny little 12 year old getting knocked back by serve receive balls to having some of the best ball control around we have loved watching you grow into the young woman you are. Taylor is the definition of what it means to be a good teammate. She is always so positive, encouraging, and giving 100% effort no matter who her partner is. Her teammates have voted her 3 years in a row to win the Coast award, this award goes to the player that represents our club to the highest standard. She is a great example for our younger players to look up to. Thank you for all you have done to leave your mark at GCVA. We will miss you so much Tay!

Back to our Senior Spotlights, next up for the class of 2026 is Maddy Vega!

Maddy has been on the national team for 4 years. She will be attending LSU where she will continue her beach career. Maddy will be majoring in kinesiology with a concentration on health and physical education. Fun fact about her is that Coach Vicki is also her mom and she has been training with GCVA since she was 11.

✨Favorite national team memory is our annual sunset swims in Cali at nationals.

🥲 What will you miss most? Getting to see all the people that made me fall in love with this sport.

🤔Advice to underclassman? Be nice to your teammates because they will be by your side your whole high school journey and grow to be your best friends.

From that little girl that was always falling in the sand to one of the top players around it has been an absolute pleasure to watch you grow up! Maddy is always so kind & helpful to our younger national team players, futures & summer beach players. She is a great role model for everyone in our GCVA beach programs. You have always been the one to put in extra work & extra reps. That mindset has got you where you are today. Thank you for making such a positive impact on our program, amazing things are ahead for this one!

Congratulations to our blue squad taking first place in open at the Beach South BVCA tournament this weekend! Such a fun weekend with this team 🥇

Day 1 at the Beach South BVCA!

Traveling as a team this weekend. Our open squads are ready for North Carolina ✈️

Today’s senior spotlight for the class of 2026 is Emma Gehbauer!

Emma has been on the national team for 5 years. She plans to continue her beach career at Texas A&M Corpus Christi & study kinesiology. Fun fact about Emma is she was the first of our seniors to go full time beach in 8th grade!

✨Favorite national team memory? Clearwater our freshman year when we all got close to each other.

🥲What will you miss most? I’ll miss being able to travel will all of my bestfriends and faking Travis’ birthday at every restaurant.

🤔Advice to underclassmen? Play with as many people as you can and have fun, don’t take it too serious.

Emma set the tone for this senior class going full beach and the others soon followed. She is a fierce competitor and always pushes her teammates to be better. We are so proud of how you battled injuries over the years and came back stronger than ever! It is not an easy task to come back from being injured and fight your way back into a top open squad position. Good luck to you at Corpus!

Today’s senior spotlight for the class of 2026 is Keaton Points!

Keaton has been on the national team for one year. She will be attending the University of San Fransisco where she plans to study biology & continue her beach career. Fun fact about Keaton is that although she has only been on the national team for 1 year but she has been training with us on and off since she was 12.

✨Favorite national team memory? The aftermath of Tay dropping her phone in the Pacific Ocean at the Huntington BVCA.

🥲What you will miss most? The team culture at BVCAs when cheering each other on.

🤔Advice to underclassman? Work as hard as you can and be the best teammate you can and everything will work out!

We are so happy Keaton decided to go full beach her senior year! She is always the loudest one on the sideline hyping up her teammates and always making new friends at tournaments. We wish we could have gotten more time with you, but we know you are going to continue to get better in college! Let her story show that it’s never too late to go all in on beach.

Our next Senior Spotlight for the class of 2026 is Kat Hunt!

Kat has been on the national team for 3 years. She plans to go to the University of Arkansas and major in business marketing. Fun fact that some people may not know is she is Coach Amanda’s little sister.

✨Favorite national team memory?
Going to Huntington Beach this year.

🥲What you will miss most?
I will miss getting to see all of the people I’ve met through this sport.

🤔Advice to underclassman?
Just have fun 🫶🏼

Kat has been such a key part to our GCVA beach family these last few years. She is always cheering on her teammates and always there to listen when you need a friend. We will miss having your joyful self at practice! Amazing things ahead of this one.