SANTA CRUZ >> Mitch and Mo.
It’s not the name of Santa Cruz’s newest barber shop, excavation company or tire repair place. But Erin Mitchell and Morgan Henry-Ehritt can give a clinic on cuts, digs and treading sand.
That’s what they’ve been doing all spring as Cabrillo College’s top beach volleyball team. The pair of 24-year-olds went 12-0 in matches this season and last week won the NorCal pairs championship. That gives them the No. 1 NorCal seed heading into this weekend’s California Community College Athletic Association state beach volleyball pairs championships at Grossmont College in El Cajon.
Teammates Natalie Picone and Marissa Ottesen also qualified for the pairs tournament as the No. 8 NorCal seed, and both duos will also compete with the NorCal-champion Seahawks against three SoCal squads — defending champion Irvine Valley, Grossmont and Golden West — in Friday’s team tournament at the same location.
“Mitch and Mo — it sounds like an old-man friendship,” said Henry-Ehritt, who added that their teammates and even coach Lucas Bol have gone so far as to make up skits based on their nickname.
In the relatively new sport of junior college beach volleyball, though, Mitchell and Henry-Ehritt are kind of the elder stateswomen. They have been playing recreational beach volleyball together for four years and are the only members of the Seahawks to have competed at a four-year college. Henry-Ehritt, a Ventura native, played indoor at Cabrillo for two years before moving up the hill to UC Santa Cruz, where she is now the interim head coach in addition to teaching P.E. classes at the university and coaching teams for the Main Beach volleyball club. Mitchell grew up in Santa Cruz and helped Mount Madonna School win the Division IV state title in 2007 before graduating to play for Evergreen State in Olympia, Wash., and for Humboldt State.
The pair met while Mitchell trained with Cabrillo’s indoor team during her transition between Evergreen and Humboldt State.
“We had a pretty good group of girls who liked to come out and play on the beach, and it was nice for me to have that since I didn’t have that anymore because I had been away,” Mitchell said. “Morgan was fun to play with. And she’s tall.”
They quickly became friends, and then volleyball partners, earning their AA rating in the California Beach Volleyball Association together. They credit a fellow Main Beach player, Hari Bartlett, for dubbing them Mitch and Mo.
Both women still had college eligibility since beach volleyball is considered a separate animal from indoor volleyball, so Bol didn’t waste any time recruiting the pair last summer. He said he originally planned to have them play together, but he experimented with splitting them up during the first week of the season with the hope that their collective experience divided would make the Seahawks team better as a whole.
They still played well apart, but, he said, “They’re definitely better together.
“There’s history. They have a good understanding of each other and the game. They know what each other can do and they make that the option.”
The duo credits Bol for pushing their mental and physical abilities. The real secret to their success, they say, is communication. They said they can count the number of arguments they had on the court this season on one finger.
“I really don’t think I talk to anyone as honestly as I do to Morgan,” Mitchell said. “And not just about volleyball, about anything. It’s ‘This is what I’m feeling right now.’”
Usually what Mitchell is feeling while on the beach is a goofy happiness and frivolity, a sentiment Henry-Ehritt enjoys egging on.
“They work really well together,” teammate Trish Hildinger said. “They talk positive, and they don’t take each other too seriously.”
What Mitchell is feeling as the team prepares to drive down to El Cajon for what the players hope is three days of competitive matches, however, is confidence. The Seahawks finished fourth of four squads in last year’s inaugural state team championships in Cabrillo’s first season fielding a beach team. They only returned three players from that group, but they plucked several members from Cabrillo’s indoor state championship team and tossed in several seasoned beach players, like Mitch and Mo.
“I think we’re more experienced, and I think that’s going to really help,” Bol said. “I think this group is oozing confidence. We’re prepared.”
Contact Julie Jag at 831-706-3257.
