By Gary Curreri

(Left) Savannah Davis returns a shot in a recent Florida Beach Volleyball Tour 18-under girls division match in Ft. Lauderdale. Photo by Gary Curreri

Kristina Pellitteri and Savannah Davis have a lot in common. Both live in Deerfield Beach. Both are Pompano Beach High School students, and both love the beach.

So why not parlay that into a possible future in beach volleyball? They are well on their way, as they have been tearing it up on the beach volleyball junior circuit. The duo, who also play on their high school volleyball team, have won the past four tournaments they have played in together.

Pellitteri, who has been playing beach volleyball since her freshman year, took first place with her older sister Stephanie in an AAA Division earlier in the year and won the last four tournaments in the Florida Beach Volleyball Tour in the 18-under girls division with Davis.

“It really helps your defense a lot because you are used to playing with two people, and when you play indoors there are six,” said Pellitteri, 17, who also hopes to land a beach volleyball scholarship to Florida State University where her sister, Stephanie recently signed “It is not really a hard transition. It is probably a harder transition to go from beach to indoors than from indoors to beach.”

Pellitteri said it is exciting knowing that colleges are offering scholarships for beach volleyball.

“Before we were playing for fun and now we are playing to have people watch you,” Pellitteri said. “I don’t look around right now to see if there are college coaches around. I probably will be soon. It will probably make me nervous.”

“I think beach volleyball has improved my game all around more than indoors would because the conditioning is so much better,” Pellitteri added. “I just have more fun playing beach volleyball because that is what I want to do.”

Davis, 16, a Pompano Beach High sophomore, said she has teamed with Pellitteri for three years. She also likes the fact that there are college options on the horizon.

“It definitely gets more and more competitive as the season progresses, especially now that colleges are offering beach volleyball scholarships,” Davis said. “I was really excited because I liked beach more than indoor. It is more relaxed and you get to touch every ball.”

Davis, who used to play travel soccer, likes volleyball because her mom used to play, and her friends encouraged her to give it a try.

“I would love to play in the Olympics  or  be on TV,” Davis said. “I would definitely go that far. It would be a great opportunity. It would take drive and really being dedicated to the sport.”

Kristina Pellitteri returns a shot in a recent Florida Beach Volleyball Tour 18-under girls division match in Fort Lauderdale. Photo by Gary Curreri