The first time Ella Foti played sand volleyball, she hated it.
The limited movement? Not a fan. The difficulty of playing in the sand compared to on the hardcourt? No chance. Having to play in the sweltering heat of a Milwaukee summer? That was the worst part.
“I was in third or fourth grade when I did a tournament at Bradford Beach,” Ella said. “You’re in the sand, you can’t jump as high. I think I got a little bit heat sick, it was not a good experience.”
But even with all the difficulties she faced that day, Ella was drawn to the sport. As the years went by, she kept her main focus primarily on playing indoor volleyball. Now, over a decade after that dreadful day at Bradford Beach, she is getting set to embark on a new journey — playing sand volleyball for Pepperdine University.
What led to the change of heart you might ask? For starters, Ella had some pretty knowledgeable resources to lean on as she grew older.
Her older sister, Samantha, spent four seasons playing volleyball at Xavier. Samantha’s collegiate career started while Ella was in sixth grade and ended in the winter of her first year of high school.
“I basically got to see what it was like to be a college athlete,” Ella said. “Both of my parents were college athletes, but that was like 25 years before that, I wanted to see what it was like now.”
The Foti sisters grew up in Madison, Wisconsin, where as you can probably guess — it’s all about the Big Ten. But when Samantha went to go play for the Musketeers, it opened up a new door of possibility for Ella.
“It’s been really cool to see how Big East volleyball has gotten better each year and how it’s evolved,” Ella said. “It was awesome to be able to see what it might be like to play in the Big East, and as it turns out that’s where I ended up, so it was cool.”
Ella wasn’t sure if she was going to get the chance to be a Golden Eagle.
Early on in her high school playing days, she received news that no athlete ever wants to hear — she had torn her ACL playing basketball. Along with the injury, came the subsequent consequences.
At the time, Ella’s final two schools were Marquette and another school. After the other school learned that she had torn her ACL, they decided to offer someone else.
A week after the injury, Foti traveled down to Marquette for an unofficial visit with head coach Ryan Theis. She was prepared to hear the worst.
“I was super nervous because I’m like ‘Oh my god, they aren’t going to want me anymore, this is super scary,'” Ella said. “I remember being in his office and Ryan says to me, ‘Okay, let’s address the elephant in the room.’ I thought he was going to say something about my ACL.”
Then Theis flipped the script.
“Then he says, ‘I wanna offer you a scholarship to come play for us,’ and I was like, ‘What?,'” Ella said. “I was pretty shocked.”
Two Big East Championships, three tournament wins and 472 kills later, Theis doesn’t seem to regretting the decision one bit.
“I just knew that she was the right kind of kid, the right kind of fit, and sure she had suffered an injury, but in one way, shape or form, she was going to help us,” Theis said. “And she sure has.”
Despite all the success she’s had with Marquette, Ella has always had it in the back of her mind that her last year of eligibility might be used somewhere else. COVID-19 struck during the spring of Ella’s junior year in high school. Because of all of the shutdowns and mandates during the pandemic, the only place she could play volleyball was outside.
“That basically got me thinking about (sand volleyball) again,” Ella said. “It was (Samantha) and her now-husband (PJ), and then I would bring whatever volleyball player would want to come, and we’d go play doubles.”
They would repeat the same routine weekly on Thursday nights for the entirety of the summer.
“There was a beach court at the park, and that where I started to realize that I actually enjoyed the sport, and it was also the moment where I was starting to think, ‘Oh, maybe I could do this,'” Ella said.
Early in her Marquette career, Ella communicated her plans of playing sand to Theis.
“I was way open to it, and would help in any way possible,” Theis said.
After playing two seasons with Marquette, Ella decided to hop in the portal to look for a sand volleyball home at the completion of the 2024 spring semester. However, because sand volleyball is played in the spring, it meant Foti could stick around for one last ride with the Golden Eagles.
“I was proactive with it, I had an email ready to go,” Theis said. “(Ella) has a very specific academic interest, so she gave me a list of like 11 schools that had it, and right away I reached out to all 11 and was like ‘Hey, Ella Foti’s getting on the portal. Here’s some indoor aspects of her, she’s working on a beach video. Just so you know, she’s amazing.'”
Of the schools that got back to her, it was Pepperdine that Ella decided was the best fit for her. She announced her commitment via Instagram on July 21.
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“We’re just so incredibly proud of her on and off the court,” Samantha said. “I always joke around that I had a big impression on her, and at times I felt like I helped parent her and shape her into the person she is, so we often joke around about how I take a little bit of credit for her success.
“Just really excited to see her go chase her dream of playing beach,” Samantha said.
Ella — who is just recently coming off an ankle injury she suffered during the preseason — plans to finish the season with Marquette before heading to the warm weather of Malibu, California in January.
“I’m gonna miss being close with 16 other people,” Ella said. “It was awesome to be able to grow up with each other, because this is the only time in your life where you get to do that.
“How the coaches have made it more about us and our lives, and not just volleyball. I think I’m gonna miss those things the most.”
It wasn’t originally in the plans, but Ella Foti is now preparing for the next chapter of her life. A decade later, all the blood, sweat and tears poured into the sport, that dreadful day at the beach will now be reflected on as nothing short of misunderstood passion.
This story was written by Matthew Baltz. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @MatthewBaltzMU.