Cox Is Holding Court in Sand

When Stephanie Cox graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a law and society degree eight years ago, she expected to be working the courts by the time she turned 30. Just not the volleyball courts.

But Cox, who graduated from Mission Viejo High, continues to prove she made the right decision in the summer of 1997, putting her law career on hold to focus on beach volleyball and her pending marriage.

At the Beach Volleyball Assn. Seal Beach Open Saturday, Cox and partner Katy Eldridge, seeded sixth, advanced to today’s contender’s bracket semifinals. Cox and Eldridge stayed alive in the double-elimination tournament with a 15-9 victory over Costa Mesa’s Valinda Hilleary and partner Julie Sprague.

This weekend’s event comes on the heels of the FIVB Chicago Grand Slam last weekend, where Cox and Eldridge finished 13th in their first international two-person tournament. They also have two fifth-place finishes and a seventh in three BVA tournaments this season, giving Cox another reason to keep her toes in the sand.

“I’m enjoying what I’m doing now and I’ll figure out in the next couple years what I want to do next,” Cox said. “Law school will always be there.”

When Cox decided to put law school on hold and leave her job as a full-time legal clerk three years ago, she was already a mainstay on the four-person circuit, winning 1995 and 1997 FIVB world championships. She played her first full season on the two-person tour in 1999, finishing seventh three times and winning $6,875.

During that time, Cox tested the coaching waters as an assistant with the Irvine Valley women’s volleyball team and then landed the head assistant position at UCSB in January. Cox and her husband, Jose Gandara, who just finished his first season as head assistant for the UCSB men’s team, pulled up stakes in Aliso Viejo and moved to Santa Barbara.

“I kind of found my niche and maybe I do want to coach [for a living],” Cox said. “I’ve got to check it out for a few years. I’m at UCSB, one of the top six Division I programs [in the country]. If I don’t like that, then I should just get out of coaching because that’s pretty much the highest level until you get to the national team.”

Cox and Eldridge will face former UC Irvine standout Ali Wood and partner Danalee Bragado at 9 a.m. today. In the other contender’s bracket semifinal, former Laguna Beach High player Linda Hanley and partner Karrie Poppinga will meet another Laguna Beach grad, Rachel Wacholder, and partner Nancy Mason.

Newport Harbor graduate Misty May and partner Holly McPeak, seeded second, advanced to the winner’s bracket semifinals, which also begin at 9 a.m. Also advancing were top-seeded Annett Davis and Jenny Johnson Jordan, third-seeded Lisa Arce and Barbra Fontana, and fourth-seeded Nancy Reno and Leanne Schuster.