ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – An Eckerd College freshman partnership is reaching for new heights in NCAA women’s beach volleyball.
With the young and vibrant team on the rise, Addie White and Anna Jupin’s recent pairing is hoping to stand out for the Tritons.
Eckerd has a team record of 22-33 as of this writing. The rookie pairing is currently 1-5 and hasn’t started out the way they want to, but are striving to develop an on-court chemistry throughout their college careers.
“My goal is to just form like a really good partnership with Anna,” said White, the North Carolina native. “We can go really far in the next four years, and I’m really excited for that.”
Jupin also shared the same sentiment, clarifying that being rookies has made their bond grow immensely. On and off the court, her main goal is to continue to strengthen their chemistry.
With the Tritons beach volleyball team having so much young talent, their lack of experience may eventually become their greatest strength.
“I think that we have a lot of grit,” Jupin said. “We just want to continue to get better and power through everything, every day.”
The dynamic duo is never counting themselves out, they know they’re youthful and they want to use it to their advantage.
They’re both grateful to grow with the Eckerd College Tritons and making errors along the way is no problem for them.
“We want to fail forward,” Jupin stated, as the sun rose onto the sandy court. “We’re going to make mistakes, but they’re going to be good mistakes.”
This mentality is part of why they’ve made it to the college level. The two freshmen spoke on their approach for anyone wanting to do the same.
White believes that while you should be supportive of your team and their goals, you should ultimately be playing for yourself. The biggest thing for her is to love what you’re doing.
On the other hand, her on-court companion always wants to expand her knowledge. “To work from a different mindset and being open to learning it all,” said Jupin, the Alabama born native. “If you just take everything in, it’ll be really beneficial for your development.”
Head coach Michelle Piantadosi-Lima believes there’s no limit on the duos growth, and with how tight knit the volleyball club as a whole currently is, it’s hard to disagree.
“The ceiling is really high right now, so we’re just going to continue to grow,” White emphasized.