Beach volleyball runs through the Wood family’s veins, and each sister has paved her own path in the sport

When you pull into the cul de sac of the Wood family home near Garnet Valley High School, you see a volleyball net peeking from the side of the house.

You can tell it’s been there for some time, with a few rough patches in the grass surrounding the area. It’s also where the three Wood sisters — Maddie, Lauren, and Sarah — learned how to play the sport when they were kids, and, ever since, it has been part of their lives.

“I’ve had a ball in my hands since I was younger,” Maddie, the oldest sister, said. “There’s a picture of me on the beach. I was a year old with a volleyball in my hand, so my parents kind of got it into my life right when I was born.”

Their parents, Greg and Krista, grew up competing in volleyball tournaments. (It’s even how the two met.) When their daughters asked to try out the sport, they trained them, spending hours practicing with and against one another.

And that came with rough moments, when tears were shed and arguments took over the household. But the girls knew they wouldn’t play the game together forever, and this year marked the first season the three sisters competed on the same indoor volleyball team at Garnet Valley High.

“It’s a lot of fun, because we all have that connection,” said Sarah, who is a freshman, “where we can kind of know what we’re running and be able to just communicate through each other’s minds.”

Maddie, a senior, and Lauren, a junior, looked at their youngest sister, confused, before bursting out laughing, “What ... read each other’s minds?” Sarah said. “No, we don’t do that,” Lauren responded while trying to wipe the tears from laughter from her eyes.

They may not actually read each other’s minds, but playing together has brought them closer. It also has helped each of them improve her game.

Maddie and Sarah look to pursue beach volleyball at the next level, which led them to be partners in several tournaments. Most recently, they took first place in the 18-and-under age group at AVP Beach Week in July in Atlantic City.

They’ve found their own success. Maddie, a right-side hitter and defender, is a University of Tampa beach volleyball recruit. Sarah, a 6-foot-1 split blocker, at age 14 became the youngest player to advance from a qualifier to main draw in an Association of Volleyball Professionals beach tournament this summer in Muskegon, Mich., as she finished in 13th place with partner Ashleigh Adams.

“Just watching Maddie be able to commit, Lauren is on a different path — she loves to play, but she’s not as driven toward college as maybe the other two,” their father said. “Then Sarah has larger aspirations, whether it’s professionally or Olympics down the road, that’s been fun to watch.

“Just them [taking] their own path and have their own journey in the sport has been amazing.”

They credit their development to their parents, who coached them on organized teams growing up. The work wasn’t easy. But with their parents by their side, they saw the opportunities they could receive by playing the sport.

“It’s always been a little intense,” Maddie said of having her parents as coaches. “There’s higher expectations of you than there are the other kids, but it’s kind of what sets you apart. They’re both great coaches, and I think that’s really what’s helped us to grow and get better at the game.”

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The Wood parents once were competitive volleyball players themselves. During the summer after graduating from college, the two competed in a co-ed tournament in Maryland. They crossed paths and exchanged phone numbers, and the rest was history.

“[Volleyball] has been in our blood for a while,” Greg said. “Then, as we got married and had kids, we sort of got away from it until our youngest turned 6 and sort of brought us back into playing again.”

Maddie tried other organized sports, but she started to develop a relationship with volleyball when her dad taught her how to rally the ball back and forth. Then at age 8, Greg told his daughter if they could get 10 hits without losing control of the ball, he would buy her a goldfish.

“As soon as we got to 10, we went out and got a goldfish,” Greg said. “She was hooked on the sport just by us sort of playing together. And those days were when it was just pure fun. We would just bump in the side yard together.”

Watching their older sister, Lauren and Sarah wanted to give it a try, so the three of them started bumping the ball together in the driveway until they felt they had the foundation down.

When the girls signed up for organized volleyball, they looked to compete in doubles rather than on six-player indoor teams. They enjoyed the two-player format, where they had more freedom to pass, set, and hit the ball, but it also taught them communication skills with their partner, who usually was one of their parents or a sister.

In fact, during a weekend tournament, Krista was Maddie’s first doubles partner.

“Krista played in more tournaments after 40 then she did prior to that,” Greg said, laughing.

If any of the girls needed a partner, though, she was there.

“I’m very lucky that I got to play with my kids,” Krista said. “Not everybody gets to do that. For me it was more about teaching them the game, teaching the kids how to play. Then as they got better, they surpass me now.”

When Maddie decided on Tampa, a program that finished third in the American Volleyball Coaches Association Small College Championships last season, she felt it fit what she was looking for.

Sarah has always looked up to her eldest sister throughout her volleyball career, especially during the recruiting process. Sarah hopes to play beach volleyball in college at a school such as UCLA, USC, or Florida State.

As training for both of them became more serious, they competed on different club teams, like East Coast Power, and now for Stars and Stripes Beach Volleyball. But they would practice most days during the week at home.

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Once Greg started to see the growth of NCAA beach volleyball in 2017, he decided to put in a beach court in their backyard.

“It was our version of putting in a pool,” Greg said. “But the amount of time and play in family games has been incredible, specifically during COVID. … We were still as a family able to come together and play.”

Maddie and Sarah viewed the court as a way to amplify their training. They spent a lot of time together as a family practicing, maybe even too much time. Last year, the sisters had to step away from playing together because it got to the point where they would butt heads.

“Oh my goodness, there would definitely be tears from getting in each other’s heads and just bicker back and forth,” Maddie said. “We would say mean things like, ‘Oh, that’s so easy,’ like about your shot and everything. ... It’s all really funny looking back.”

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But there are no hard feelings because that’s the beauty of having a sister. Although they may fight at times, playing for Garnet Valley before Maddie heads off to college is time they won’t get back, so the last rally together was a decision they don’t regret.

“Before high school volleyball, there weren’t a lot of similarities between us,” Lauren said. “During school, we’re all just doing our own thing, but it’s really made us like more part of each other’s lives, just more involved, like more common interests, so I feel like it’s just made us so much closer.”