HERMOSA BEACH, Calif. — There comes a time in virtually every moderately successful beach volleyball player’s career when they are presented a choice that is essentially this sport’s version of Buridan’s Donkey. In that hypothetical scenario, a donkey, equally hungry and thirsty, is placed exactly equidistant from sources of food and water. The choice can be paralyzing: Does it eat or drink?
As this 2022 season began, there was Molly Turner, exactly equidistant from a pair of goals: To be directly into the main draw, or to give herself the best possible chance at winning — by picking up a partner who would require going through the brutal gauntlet of qualifiers.
What would you do? Take the easy route? The one in which you play the points game, perhaps even play with another fellow defender and take on a defensive look that Turner laughingly described as “split-pulling,” because both are too small to put up a reasonable block? Such a choice would give you a coveted spot directly into the main draw — and Turner had options to do so — but, in all reality, the best possible finish would be a ninth, maybe a seventh, should all go exceptionally well.
Or do you take the hard route, the one in which you begin well before the actual main draw, in the qualifier, with no promise of points or money or any main draw experience, but with the potential payout of career-high finishes, career-high points, career-high prize money, a career-best season?
“I feel like that’s the story of this year for me, the qualifier, and not in a bad way, because everyone’s always trying to point count and stuff, but I was like ‘Screw it,’ the next generation for women and girls are young, and if you make it out of the qualifier you’re riding this high,” Turner said on SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter. “I feel like teams that came out of the qualifier after winning a big game come into the main draw like ‘Let’s go.’ You spend so much money and it’s terrifying and I’m super anxious always, up until the last game, but I’ve had no regrets thus far.”
Her results this season speak volumes: In eight events on the AVP, Turner amassed a career-high $13,050 in prize money. She took seven top-10 finishes despite coming through the qualifier tournaments — known in this year’s vernacular as Tour Series events — in Austin, New Orleans, Fort Lauderdale, Atlanta, Manhattan Beach, and Chicago. She hit Volleyball World tournaments in…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Volleyballmag.com…