Junior Charlotta Bell and senior Brooke Rockwell captured a victory for Stanford beach volleyball at the AVCA Collegiate Beach National Championship this weekend in Huntsville, Alabama. They were joined at the tournament by fellow Cardinal pair junior Avery Jackson and senior Ruby Sorra.
Closing out the three-day tournament against some of the nation’s top talent, Bell and Rockwell’s hard-fought victory was the Cardinal’s first-ever AVCA Pairs Championship tournament win. “This was a great way to finish fall ball, having Charlotta and Brooke make a statement for Stanford,” Sorra wrote to the Daily.
64 teams competed in this year’s tournament. Schools earned competition bids for up to two pairs through three avenues: performances from the 2026 season, strong finishes from qualifier events in the fall or as at-large selections. As the 2026 NCAA runner-up, Stanford earned bids for the maximum two pairs. 41 schools across DI and DII sent athletes to compete for the chance to win a title. Commenting on what the AVCA means for a school like Stanford, “[the tournament] gives us a good outlook on how we match up against other teams’ top pairs,” wrote Bell.
Sorra and Jackson entered as the No. 3 seed, with Bell and Rockwell landing the No. 5 seed. These top-five rankings marked Stanford as the only school to enter with both pairs ranked within the top 10. After dominant wins in the rounds of 64 and 32, Sorra and Jackson fell in the round of 16 in two close sets against the No. 14-ranked UT Austin pair of Lia Berger and Devin Kahahawai (22-24, 19-21).
Bell and Rockwell cruised through the draw, only dropping one set among five games en route to the championship match, including a definitive 21-12, 21-16 victory in the semifinals over the No. 1 seed from Texas.
In the finals, facing the same pair that defeated Sorra and Jackson two rounds earlier, Bell and Rockwell got off to a rocky start, losing the first set 21-8 to the Longhorns. Showcasing a much-needed short memory and a strong rally, Bell’s presence at the net and Rockwell’s scrappy defense contributed to a momentum shift after the first set.
The duo kept Berger and Kahahawai at arm’s length for the remainder of the match, battling back to win 21-17 in the second set. The final set was punctuated by a 5-point run from the Card, breaking away from a tight match at 9-10 to 14-10. A no-doubt block from Bell at the 11-10 point solidified the momentum rolling in favor of Stanford. Texas scored twice more before a missed serve from Berger officially handed the win to Bell and Rockwell, 15-12.
As a pre-season competition, AVCA Beach Nationals provide an opportunity for the Cardinal to compete as individual pairs in tournament-style play. Sorra, when asked about the importance of an out-of-season competition like this, replied: “[AVCA] showed us the tough pairs and teams that we are going to be facing in season… [it’s] a stepping stone in the end goal and there is still much to do and work on as a team!”
All four representatives from Stanford played with a different partner last season, so a tournament like this one provides an opportunity to put potential matchups in an environment similar to NCAA competition. Following her win and looking towards the future, Bell wrote “It’s great representation for Stanford to win this kind of event as a statement towards other teams, but it also shows how much talent there is on the sand this year, which makes us excited to start competing as a united team in-season.”
The Cardinal will open their season in February at the Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Classic, hosted by Hawaiʻi.