She’s Learning to Bump, Set, Switch : Volleyball: Lessons in teamwork are helping former Laguna Beach standout Ciarelli succeed on the pro beach tour.

Cammy Ciarelli plays in that musical chairs world of professional beach volleyball, where your partner one day can be your opponent the next.

And this weekend’s $50,000 Seal Beach Open is no exception.

After playing the first five tournaments with Nancy Reno, Ciarelli, a former Laguna Beach High and UCLA standout, will team with Gayle Stammer of Laguna Beach.

Their new partnership is a result of a shuffle among the top players on the tour.

Elaine Roque, who played with Janice Opalinski-Harrer last week, will team with Barb Fontana at Seal Beach. Opalinski-Harrer will play with Reno.

Ciarelli originally planned to play with Deb Richardson of Santa Barbara, a partnership that lasted a little more than 24 hours. Richardson will play with Holly McPeak this weekend.

All this seems a little foreign to Ciarelli, a wife and mother of two who listens to the Grateful Dead and refers to her laid-back approach as “Zen volleyball.”

“It’s like you can’t trust anyone,” Ciarelli said of the tour. “It’s like we’re all out there for ourselves, not for teamwork.

“It’s cut-throat. After I agreed to play with Gayle, I had three more calls on my answering machine from people looking for partners. It’s not switching. It’s dumping.”

But business is business. After all, there’s a $50,000 purse on the line, as well as a possible trip to next weekend’s eight-team Las Vegas tournament.

Many players consider Seal Beach a last shot at the Vegas tournament, so a change in partners seemed to be in order.

“What happened was Nancy was talking to Jackie Silva to see if she wanted to play with her,” Ciarelli said. “Jackie thought it over on Monday, then decided to stay with Patty (Dodd, her partner).

“Then Barb was called by Elaine, who wanted to dump Janice. Once Barb was taken, Deb, her partner, called me. Then Janice called Reno, who wanted a change because we weren’t getting along. It was a domino effect.”

Ciarelli and Richardson trained together one day in Los Angeles. Then Stammer, a former Louisiana State and Italian pro league player, called Ciarelli Tuesday night.

Another new partnership was formed. Ciarelli and Stammer are seeded seventh at Seal Beach.

“I would have had to switch to the right side if I played with Deb,” said Ciarelli, a 5-10 middle blocker in college. “I think (playing with Stammer) will help us out for ball control purposes.”

Ciarelli is in her second season on the tour. She and partner Diane Pestolesi finished as high as fourth as rookies last season.

But Pestolesi decided not to play on the tour this season. So Ciarelli teamed with Reno, a partnership that showed promise early.

They began training together under Laguna Beach Coach Michael Soylular. They beat Angela Rock and Karolyn Kirby, the top-ranked team on the tour the past two seasons, in five of six preseason matches.

The momentum carried over to the early tour stops with third-place finishes at Phoenix and Ft. Myers, Fla.

But they placed a disappointing ninth at Santa Cruz two weeks ago, and were seventh last week at Fresno.

Ciarelli said she and Reno were frustrated and began bickering. They decided to find new teammates.

“We left with no hard feelings,” Ciarelli said. “But it was like we were just suddenly cut off. It was like starting a sales company, not having a great first year because of a recession, and then closing down.

“It’s unfortunate, because we definitely had a chance to be a good team. I feel we bailed on each other.”

Ciarelli’s lessons in teamwork started as a sophomore at Laguna Beach High. She played club volleyball two seasons for Dale Flickinger at Orange County Volleyball before landing a scholarship to UCLA, where she lettered four years and earned All-American honors as a senior.

After finishing her career at UCLA, she spent two years playing for an Italian professional league team in Rome.

It was in Italy when Ciarelli’s values began to change. Somewhat of a free spirit, she became close with an Italian family in her neighborhood.

“I really got into the Italian language and culture,” she said. “I had come from Southern California, where parents were getting divorced, and here I was in Italy, where the family is the most important thing.”

She retained those values when she returned to Southern California after the 1986 season. She began dating Rocky Ciarelli, Huntington Beach High’s volleyball coach, whom she married the next year.

“I had known Rocky for a number of years and it seemed like we had different things going on,” Cammy said. “I had never dated a volleyball player before, that just wasn’t for me.”

Then she met his family.

The Ciarelli family--parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces and cousins--comprise a large cheering section for Huntington Beach matches. It’s a tight-knit group, something that appealed to Cammy.

“It’s great to see Rocky, how he is with his family,” she said. “It’s great to have a family like that to lean on.”

Cammy usually doesn’t get to watch much of Rocky’s high school matches. She’s usually keeping an eye on their children, Felicia, who’ll turn 4 next month, and Tony, a 2-year-old who has more energy than a nuclear power plant.

“People say to me, ‘I don’t see how you can play volleyball and raise the kids,’ ” Cammy said. “But I have it easy compared to Rocky. He does all the work. He teaches, coaches, then comes home and plays with the kids.”

The Ciarellis are hoping for a break, and they might get it in Las Vegas next weekend.

But first, Cammy must qualify for the tournament. And only Rocky’s Huntington Beach team, a Southern Section 4-A quarterfinalist, could be playing for the championship that weekend.

“At the beginning of the year, my goal was to go to the Las Vegas shootout first,” Ciarelli said. “That’s all I would concentrate on, then go on with the rest of the tour.

“It will be a great tournament. Rocky will go and the Grateful Dead is in concert that weekend.”

The Grateful Dead?

“We’re Deadheads,” Ciarelli said. “I’ve seen them seven or eight times, and Rocky has seen them hundreds of times.”