For Now, Rooney Is Just Filling the Sands of Time

Sean Rooney joked all season with his Pepperdine volleyball teammates about trying the beach game this summer.

Even after he’d led the Waves to the NCAA title a month ago and was named national college player of the year, Rooney laughed about it.

Friday, the joke was on three other pro beach teams as Rooney and Pepperdine teammate John Mayer won three matches in a qualifier and earned a spot in the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals San Diego Open.

“Our first two matches were tough, but we started playing better and better as we went along,” Rooney said. “We got into a rhythm.”

Making a successful transition from the indoor game to the beach isn’t unusual -- most of today’s top beach stars excelled indoors -- but the transition normally takes time.

Rooney, a 6-foot-9 outside hitter, and Mayer, a 6-2 setter, got into the main draw of an AVP tournament on their second attempt. They lost their first qualifying match May 20 in Santa Barbara.

“It’s the same skills, but a different sport,” Rooney said. “I have to set and control the ball. In college, I mostly just hit.”

Rooney has been invited to play with the U.S. national indoor team and probably could earn a contract with a pro indoor team in Europe. He said he hadn’t decided which road he would take.

He said he planned to play some with the national team this summer, but any success this weekend in San Diego could change his mind.

“I have some options,” he said.

Should he decide to pursue the AVP full-time, he’ll instantly become a coveted playing partner. AVP rule changes four years ago that made the court smaller and changed to rally scoring have made big players essential. Most of the successful men’s teams on the AVP include a player in the 6-6 to 6-9 range.

“I’m just testing it out, meeting some people and seeing what it’s like,” Rooney said. “I’m not fully committed to anything right now.”

Except playing in the main draw today. Rooney and Mayer were seeded 40th in the 84-team single-elimination qualifier and defeated the Nos. 8, 24 and 25 seeded teams to earn one of the eight available spots.

Their reward? A first-round match in the main draw against top-seeded Dax Holdren and Jeff Nygaard, winners of the Santa Barbara tournament and runners-up in two others.

“Those guys are no joke,” Rooney said.