Gamecock volleyball's newest crossover athlete is no stranger to Gamecock Athletics.
Junior outside hitter Jolie Cranford has become a two-sport athlete, joining the indoor volleyball team after two seasons on the Gamecocks' beach volleyball roster.
Cranford enjoyed playing on the beach but missed the indoor game. After working with the indoor coaching staff, she secured a place on the team. This makes Cranford one of three players on both volleyball rosters for the Gamecocks. Three crossover athletes is the most that Gamecock Volleyball has seen in more than six years.
Starting in the sand
Cranford started playing volleyball with an indoor club team when she was 11 years old. She continued playing indoor volleyball for the next six years before restrictions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic first led her to beach volleyball.
Cranford's indoor volleyball club started to train beach volleyball to maintain their skills, and she found it "really fun."
She went through the recruiting process for both sports, but since not many players start their careers on two rosters, she did not consider it an option, she said.
"I did, at the time (of recruitment) like indoor more, but I wanted to go to an SEC school and beach brought that option."
Cranford made immediate contributions for the Gamecock beach volleyball program, starting 27 times as a freshman and 35 times as a sophomore. She earned a .661 win percentage across her first two seasons with the team.
Even though Cranford is halfway through her college athletic career, she said she is satisfied with her decision to focus on the beach team at the start of her time at South Carolina. Spending two years focusing on beach allowed her to demonstrate her commitment to the team and develop as a player, she said.
FILE — Sophomore beach volleyball player Julie Cranford dives for the ball at Wheeler Beach on April 7, 2024. The Gamecocks team took home a win against the Beakers, 5-0.
Transitioning to indoor
Cranford is not the only volleyball player on two rosters.
Graduate outside hitter and teammate Riley Whitesides, who plays both indoor volleyball and beach volleyball, has helped guide Cranford in her collegiate indoor journey, Cranford said.
Whitesides helped Cranford realize that playing both variants of volleyball was possible at South Carolina. Cranford decided to join the indoor team after talking to Whitesides in January, she said.
Indoor volleyball and beach volleyball, despite their similarities, are two technically different sports requiring different techniques. The indoor game emphasizes strength, while beach allows for flexibility and developing a player's own route to success, Cranford said. The indoor game emphasizes power while there are several ways to succeed on the beach.
"You don't have to really look or play a certain way to be good (in beach)," Cranford said. "I've found a lot of respect for a lot of the people that I've played against because, again, they can master the game in so many ways."
Another difference between beach and indoor volleyball is the number of players on the court at one time. Beach volleyball matches have players compete in pairs, unlike the six-person teams that line up on either side of the net during an indoor game. Cranford enjoys having more teammates to celebrate with indoors and the energy of the gym, she said.
Another difference between beach and indoor volleyball is each sport uses different balls and players move differently indoors than they do on sand. Cranford said her jumping abilities have significantly improved since she started playing beach volleyball. But transitioning between seasons can be challenging, she said.
Whitesides said the schemes and scouting of indoor teams, which are tactics employed to exploit the weaknesses of opponents, play a large part in the indoor game and are a significant difference from that of beach.
Whitesides said Cranford has done well adjusting to the indoor game.
“It's a completely different sport, and it's really, really a challenging thing to cross back over,” Whitesides said. “Jolie has made it look easy. She really has. She's done a great job.”
The indoor game
Cranford, Whitesides and freshman outside hitter Maggie Elliott are the three indoor players that compete for both the indoor and beach teams. This is the greatest number of dual-sport athletes on the roster during Tom Mendoza’s six years as head coach for indoor volleyball.
Mendoza said he likes having a few dual-sport players on his team that develop a high level of ball control skills during the beach season. The technical side of the beach game emphasizes precision in ball placement, a skill that can be valuable indoors.
Mendoza believes the two important attributes players can possess at the collegiate level are a desire to commit and to put in the time, two things he saw in Cranford, he said.
"Once we felt comfortable that that was the type of person and player she was, then it made a lot of sense for her to join our team," Mendoza said.
Mendoza said he has a day-by-day mindset for Cranford as she approaches her first season with the team, but has his eyes set on helping the program return to the NCAA Tournament.
“The SEC has gotten harder and more competitive every year that I've been here. It's now the top conference in the country,” Mendoza said. “There's no question that our goal is to make it back to the NCAA tournament.”
Whitesides said she is happy that Cranford was able to join the indoor team after having conversations with the coaching staff and advocating for her.
“We're so grateful that we're doing two sports together because we are very best friends,” Whitesides said.
Cranford said the feeling of her first few practices made her feel like a freshman again as she acclimated to working with her new teammates. As she continues her transition from beach to indoor volleyball, Cranford said she hopes to be an asset to the team and have a positive impact in whatever role she plays.
Cranford and the Gamecocks will take on their next opponent on Aug. 30 when they play No. 13 Kansas during a tournament at Duke University.