Over the past decade, UCLA’s Chrissie Zartman and
USC’s Tracy Lindquist have established themselves as one of
the most successful amateur beach volleyball teams in the
nation.
Nonetheless, when the No. 13 Bruins (12-6, 5-3) take on the No.
1 Trojans (15-0, 8-0) at the Lyon Center on Friday night, the duo
will be bitter enemies.
Well, sort of.
“It’s hard to create a rivalry with Chrissie because
she is so easy to get along with,” said Lindquist,
USC’s starting setter. “We are good friends. We have
been playing together all our lives.”
The tandem of Zartman and Lindquist has achieved incredible
success in beach volleyball, winning five Junior Olympic gold
medals and attaining a AAA rating, the sports’ highest
amateur standing, when Zartman was just 13 years old.
Representing the United States last summer, the team captured
the gold medal at the World University Games in Guadeloupe of the
French Antilles. Zartman and Lindquist went through the entire
tournament undefeated, losing a single game along the way to France
early in the tournament.
The duo defeated Germany in the finals 21-10, 21-12.
“It was an amazing feeling for both of us,”
Lindquist said. “The trip really allowed me to get to know
her better. We’ve grown a lot closer over the last few
months.”
The 5-foot-7-inch Lindquist and the 5-foot-4-inch Zartman were
the shortest competitors in the tournament, yet they used their
size as an advantage.
“We are more agile defensively, and we pick up a lot of
balls,” Lindquist said. “We usually don’t even
attempt to block so teams don’t know how to play against us.
Some of them hit as hard as they can when they play against us, but
that makes it really easy for us to read where the ball is
going.”
Although Zartman and Lindquist have been playing beach
volleyball together since they were in grade school, not everyone
was supportive initially. Playing against adults when they were
still in junior high school, the pair was occasionally the subject
of ridicule.
“People would tell us to go do our homework,”
Lindquist said. “They were just joking around, but a lot of
them didn’t like playing against us. After a few tournaments,
they started to know who we were.”
Both Zartman and Lindquist have been instrumental in the success
of their respective schools.
Zartman, UCLA’s top defensive player, leads the team with
3.78 digs per game and had a career-high 28 against California two
weeks ago. Lindquist, one of two setters in USC’s lineup, is
averaging 6.60 assists per game and has played very consistently in
leading the Trojans to an undefeated record.
Zartman and Lindquist talk frequently throughout the Pac-10
season, but they are more likely to trade jokes than scouting
reports.
“We saw each other on Sunday, and we talked about the game
a little bit,” Zartman said. “We both like to play
around and kid each other about who is going to win. It’s fun
when you play against people you know.”