Corinne Quiggle teamed with Sarah Schermerhorn-Murphy for first tournament championship
By McKenzie Jackson
Special to The Malibu Times
Former Pepperdine Waves beach volleyball player Corinne Quiggle snagged an Association of Volleyball Professionals tournament victory last month around 40 miles down the coast from Zuma Beach, where she starred as a collegiate player.
Quiggle and Sarah Schermerhorn-Murphy won the July 7-9 Pro Series Hermosa Beach Open. The pair defeated Megan Rice and Savannah Simo in the three-day competition’s championship match.
The victory was the first AVP title win for Quiggle and Schermerhorn-Murphy, who played indoor volleyball at Elon University.
Quiggle, who graduated from Pepperdine in 2018, said the win felt amazing.
“One for one in the finals,” she told media. “Just super excited to be here on the beach we practice on every single day. It feels like home here.”
Quiggle and Schermerhorn claimed the match 21-15, 21-16.
They grabbed an early eight-point lead in the first set.
The second set was more of a contest, but Quiggle and Schermerhorn-Murphy hit a blazing .455 to secure the win. Quiggle had nine kills and 13 digs and Schermerhorn-Murphy tallied 14 kills, five digs, and six blocks.
The two dominated the championship match, much like they dominated the field in the rest of the event. In fact, Quiggle and Schermerhorn-Murphy only dropped two sets throughout the five matches they played in route to claiming the Hermosa Beach title.
The winning duo entered the spectacle seeded sixth.
They downed 11th-seeded Jessica Gaffney and Kelly Reeves 2-1 on the first day of the tournament. Quiggle and Schermerhorn beat 3rd-seeded Deahna Kraft, also a Pepperdine alumna, and Zana Muno 2-0 the following day. In the third round, they downed Megan Kraft and Emily Stockman, the No. 2 seeds, 2-0. Quiggle and Schermerhorn claimed a 2-1 win over seventh-seeded Madelyne Anderson and Molly Tuner in the semifinals.
Quiggle said she and Schermerhorn-Murphy have been working really hard as a team.
“Beach volleyball is definitely up and down,” she noted. “We had a great year last year, and we’re finding our momentum this year. To be able to come into this tournament and win it feels amazing. It’s something really special that we get to share together forever.”
Quiggle also said she and Schermerhorn-Murphy are confident and that it is nice to see the hard work pay off.
“Being able to follow through and complete that goal of ours is just an unbelievable feeling,” she said. “It’s a testimony to all the work that we put in, all the work our coaches put in in the gym.”
Former Pepperdine players Kelley Kolinske, Brook Bauer, and Carly Skjodt also completed in Hermosa Beach. Bauer advanced to a semifinal match and Kolinske made it to the quarterfinals.
Quiggle was the 2018 West Coast Conference Player of the Year at Pepperdine and a two-time All-American with All-Academic honors. She and her Waves teammates were runners-up to the 2017 national champion. Quiggle made the 2017 NCAA Championship All-Tournament Team.
Along with the AVP tour, Quiggle has also played on the FIVB and NORCECA tours. She won back-to-back gold medals for the USA on the NORCECA tour and a silver medal on the FIVB tour.
Quiggle and Schermerhorn-Murphy placed third in the AVP Denver Tour his year. In June, the pair qualified to represent the U.S. at the Oct. 20 to Nov. 5 Pan American Games in Chile.
Quiggle and Schermerhorn-Murphy are expected to compete in the Aug. 18-20 Manhattan Beach Open.