An 11-year-old Julie Consani looked a little out of place on the volleyball court.
Still a few years too early for her eventual growth spurt, the undersized young athlete’s footwear of choice was a combination of pink low-top Converse sneakers and white Adidas soccer socks with black stripes.
“I think at that point I was just trying to make a fashion statement at practice,” she said with a laugh.
By the spring of 2014 there was no place the 5-foot-11-inch setter would rather be than standing with her new UCLA teammates on the hardwood floors of Crawford Court at UC Irvine. There, she got to represent the UCLA women’s volleyball team for the first time.
“Even though it was the smallest thing, I felt like I had accomplished so much because I was able to be wearing this UCLA jersey,” Consani said. “In season, it was just amplified when it all became real.”
(Aubrey Yeo/Daily Bruin senior staff)
She can’t quite put a firm number on how old she was when her UCLA dream began – when she first set foot on the campus in Westwood while her brother was at a basketball camp. She might’ve been 6, maybe she was 7, but what she knows for certain is, at that moment, UCLA stole her heart.
But while the volleyball player was spending her first quarter at her dream school, the UCLA women’s volleyball team was dealing with a harsh dose of reality. The team was coming off a disappointing season and injuries started to create a dearth of healthy setters on the roster.
“At one point we would’ve had no setter if (Consani) weren’t around,” said Stein Metzger, coach of the UCLA sand volleyball team and assistant coach of the UCLA women’s volleyball team. “She fell into our lap and it was really lucky for us.”
That fortuitous moment came after Consani asked to transfer from Fullerton to a different UCLA Athletics team – Metzger’s sand volleyball team. When Metzger asked for beach volleyball game tapes, Consani sent the next best thing she had: videos of herself playing with the Fullerton indoor team.
While studying the tapes, the sand volleyball coach noticed the former Titan setter in action and yelled out to the coach of UCLA’s women’s volleyball team, Michael Sealy.
“Uh, Seals,” Metzger said. “You might want to take a look at this.”
That’s how Consani ended up playing on both teams, after initially only applying for one. And as indoor season carried on, she gave her team another compelling reason to keep her on the court.
“One of the big reasons why she won the starting role was because she connected really well with (graduating outside hitter) Karsta Lowe,” Metzger said. “It’s pretty hard to get away from a setter who’s got the best attacker in the country going well.”
In her last year of indoor volleyball eligibility, Consani became a mainstay in Bruin matches, starting 31 of her 33 games played. But she brought another institution to the volleyball games. After every UCLA point, the setter would turn to her teammates, clench both fists tight and let out a celebratory roar.
“I loved playing with her. She brings the kind of energy a lot of people don’t bring on the volleyball court,” said Zoë Nightingale, graduating senior women’s volleyball middle blocker and sand volleyball player. “She has that fire to her that makes everyone else get pumped up.”
Consani’s time with the women’s volleyball team only lasted a season, but that one year didn’t end without her making an impact. She established herself as one of the premier setters in the nation, ranking No. 12 among players in assists-per-set and eighth on the UCLA all-time list.
But her time as a Bruin isn’t over.
Consani decided to transfer out of Fullerton to seek a higher level of competition in the indoor game. But at the same time, she always intended to attend a school with a sand volleyball program. For a while Fullerton was that school, until a lack of funds prevented any plans of a Titan sand volleyball team from gaining ground.
The Newport Beach native managed to supplement her sporadic experiences playing on the beaches of California with some extra playing time with a more dedicated schedule by independently playing pickup and tournament games during her three years at Fullerton.
But it was nothing like what she was able to manage as a member of the UCLA sand volleyball team.
“I think the proximity of UCLA and having a beach team has helped facilitate that, because ever since season ended, there’s me and three other teammates who play almost every single day,” Consani said. “And also having those luxurious beach courts at (Sunset Canyon Recreation Center), I wouldn’t have that at my fingertips (at Fullerton).”
Although Consani is relatively new to sand volleyball, Metzger said she makes up for it with a natural ability to read situations. She just hasn’t had the opportunity to organically develop that talent as a sand volleyball athlete, after splitting the past four years with her indoor commitments.
“She’s never had a full season of sand under her belt,” Metzger said. “She obviously had some success at the No. 3 spot last year, so that’s pretty promising that she’s going to have this entire off-season.”
But with one year of sand volleyball eligibility remaining, Consani has several months of preseason trainings and tournaments to cram before completing her fifth year as an NCAA athlete when the 2016 season arrives.
When that happens, she will have one final run at the dream.