Double Team : Relationships: The volleyball team at Corona del Mar High is close-knit, on and off the court. The girls say the friendships help their game.

Kimberly Coleman remembers coming home in tears from a grueling volleyball practice and calling her best friend, Kristen Campbell. She knew that Kristen would understand how she felt because Kristen plays volleyball too. Kimberly and Kristen, who are both 17, have played volleyball together since they were 11.

“And we’ve known each other since preschool,” Kimberly says. “It is almost like we can read each other’s mind.”

Their close relationship helps on the court, Kimberly says, because she can literally anticipate what Kristen is going to do. “I’ll step out and she’ll just step in and set the ball. We can sense each other’s movements.”

That kind of teamwork helped Kimberly and Kristen attract the attention of colleges trying to recruit top high school volleyball players. And last season it helped their school, Corona del Mar High, win section, state and national titles.

Although not all 14 girls on the Corona del Mar varsity team have known each other as long as Kimberly and Kristen, many have been playing together since junior high. As a result, they have become a close-knit group.

They have classes together and eat lunch together. Some see each other on weekends, and the entire team dresses up “weird” on days of big games. One week they all wore prom dresses and flannel shirts to school; another they planned to wear their fathers’ suits.

But this season marks the end of what has been a very close association--of years building friendships and teamwork around the sport they love. For the 10 seniors on the team, this will be their final year of high school volleyball. Five of the senior girls plan to continue to play in college, but they will be playing on different teams.

It will be a bittersweet parting.

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“We are all really good friends,” says fellow teammate Caitlin Pickart, who has known Kimberly and Kristen since kindergarten. “It will be weird not going to volleyball practice and not seeing Kim and Kristen. Sometimes when you are with people as much as we are you might get sick of them because you spend so much time together. But I have found I never got sick of the rest of my team.”

And that’s good, says Charlie Brande, head coach of the Orange County Volleyball Club, an organization that has helped train more than 100 scholarship athletes in major colleges throughout the country. In a team sport such as volleyball, players need to bond together so that they can function as one, according to Brande, who has coached many of the Corona del Mar girls in club play.

In volleyball, there is no room on the court for grudges or jealousies, Brande says. “They can be upset with each other, but they have to learn to work through resentments for the good of the team.”

Over the years, the Corona del Mar girls say they have learned to do just that. “A couple of years ago, I would let things build up inside me,” says fellow player Jennifer Stroffe. “But now I will just go up to someone and say, ‘Hey, this bothers me.’ ”

To play on the same team, you have to learn to get along, says Jennifer. “You spend so much time together, you have to. I can yell at someone on the court and then when you leave practice, it’s like it didn’t happen.”

Playing volleyball has brought the girls closer, says teammate Andrea Susson, who has known Jennifer since both were in the fourth grade. “I can talk to them about anything because they are not just my teammates, but my friends too. It’s important that you get along because if people don’t, it doesn’t flow. If one thing goes wrong it ruins the whole play.”

Brooke Herrington, assistant coach for Corona del Mar, says one of the first things she noticed about the girls during practice was the friendship that exists among players. “The greatest thing with this group is that they warm up with different partners. And they do it on their own. And it’s not just the starters with the starters. They all warm up with each other.”

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Just because players are friends, it does not mean that they are all alike, says team captain Kristen Campbell, who admits that there is a lot of competitiveness both on and off the court. “We have some strong personalities on this team. So, you have to learn each other’s personalities, how they express a win or a loss. Everybody deals with it differently. It is hard for those who don’t show their emotions in the same way,” says Kristen, who describes herself as the quiet type. “I try to be stable and not to yell at anyone on the court. I’m not saying that is right or wrong. Others on the team yell at people in a second, and that’s not right or wrong either.”

Kimberly admits that she has a tendency to yell, especially during a heated competition. “I’m a pretty aggressive player, and sometimes I get really upset in the middle of the game,” she says. “Sometimes I yell. Kristen is a little bit more quiet.”

Corona del Mar High School coach Lance Stewart knows that each girl on his team is different, but he also knows that the team needs to function as one cohesive unit. “But as a coach, you can’t treat everybody as one,” he says. “Certain personalities respond to certain type of stimuli, and you have to be consistent. You have to have a common set of goals you can achieve as a team, but each person has their own personality.”

When crises or conflicts arise, as they do in any interpersonal relationship, Stewart says the only way to resolve them is to communicate. “Talk,” he says. “You get these conflicts because of ignorance because you do not know what someone else is going through.”

Last year, Caitlin Pickart went through some very trying times when her mother was hospitalized with pneumonia and a collapsed lung. “My mom was in the hospital for a month in ICU,” says Caitlin. “For a while they weren’t sure she was going to make it. I tried not to talk about it at the time, but in practice someone said, ‘How’s your mom?’ and I just started crying. Lance told me that volleyball wasn’t important right now, what’s important is your mom, and he told me I could quit playing any time I wanted.”

Caitlin’s mother, who is now fully recovered, was still in the hospital when the Corona del Mar High School volleyball team went to the playoffs. Caitlin says that having the team’s support during her mother’s illness helped her keep herself together.

“Volleyball kind of helped me get through it,” she says. “Having the team always there and stuff. A lot of time I just didn’t want to talk about it any more and I could go to volleyball and it was always the same. I could do my practice and not worry about it. And the team could tell when I didn’t want to talk.”

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Last year the Corona del Mar girls were undefeated. This year, the team has had a couple of losses. After a loss to cross-town rival Newport Harbor High, Caitlin says, she was feeling pretty low. While she was sitting at home after the game, the phone rang. It was Kimberly Coleman.

“She said she was calling me about homework,” Caitlin recalls. “But she said, ‘I want to tell you, you played really well.’ It made me feel good. That was the nicest thing, I thought. I didn’t think I had a good game at all. I had this feeling, like just don’t even set me. I felt so stupid and I just couldn’t shake it.”

Kimberly’s call helped her bounce back, Caitlin says.

It’s that kind of thing that keeps the girls close despite an intense competitiveness on the court. “There is always competition,” says Kristen Campbell, who admits that there is even competition between her and best friend Kimberly. “Not that I am worried about being better than her. I don’t want to be better than Kim, I just want to do my best.”

Kimberly says she thinks competition is good, that it helps each girl perform better, but that it does not result in petty jealousies.

Caitlin describes it this way: “There is a little bit of jealousy, but it’s like, ‘Wow, I am jealous of her,’ but I don’t wish it less for her. It’s like we’re all happy for her when she does well. In the tournament Kim and Jennifer got all-team and we were happy for them. It’s not like we didn’t want it for them. Also there is a lot written about Kim, Kristen and Jennifer and people say, ‘Oh, you are the fourth. Don’t you feel bad that more isn’t written about you?’ But I feel they totally deserve it.”

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This week marks the end of the regular high school league volleyball play. The Corona del Mar girls will advance into the regional playoffs which begin Nov. 11. If they do well, they could end up in the state playoffs in December.

“The last game we play together will probably be hard,” says Kristen. “Right now we are trying not to think about it. It will be sad, but we are also excited and eager to go and succeed on our own.”

Kimberly, who recently went on a recruiting trip to UCLA, says: “It’s a scary feeling. But it’s nice to know there are other relationships out there and so much more to look forward to.”