Tryon many things, volleyball fits best

Megan Tryon will make her presence known at the Palestra today, when the Penn volleyball team opens its season.

But her prowess stems from other playing surfaces: Over her long athletic career, the sophomore setter has also demonstrated her skills in the sand and on the pitcher's mound.

Tryon has been playing in beach volleyball tournaments in Southern California every summer since she was 11, collecting a bevy of awards.

She was named the 2007 beach volleyball AAU Player of the Year, the 2006 USAV Beach Tour Player of the Year, and she took home the Joel Ferrell Outstanding Performance Award at the girls under-18 Junior Olympics in 2007.

Tryon says that through her mastery of the two-player sport, she has developed tangible and intangible skills which have helped shape her into the indoor player she is today.

"One thing that I've learned from the beach is relating to your partner" and learning her individual quirks, Tryon said.

That skill is particularly important to a setter, whose role is to assist and create plays.

And with only two players on the sand, Tryon is forced to cover a lot more ground and step into the attacking role.

"It really helped me with placement when I'm using my offensive attack," she said.

Her athleticism is not limited to volleyball. Last spring, she tried out for the Penn softball team. Although she was not rostered, she was taken on as a manager before quitting due to the time commitment of volleyball.

As a pitcher in high school, Tryon took on another play-making position, welcoming the pressure of having the game in her hands.

"That's really important to me - having the control - because it really affects the outcome of the game," Tryon said.

Her multi-faceted abilities are consistent with those of rest of her family. She has older twin siblings, one a professional ballerina and the other a former competitive soccer and baseball player.

With the skills Tryon acquired throughout her distinguished athletic background, she has unsurprisingly been recognized by indoor volleyball coaches as well. She received U-18 All-Tournament honors at the 2007 Junior Nationals and first-team All-CIF recognition in 2005 and 2006.

She's expected to become Penn's full-time setter, after splitting time with Linda Zhang last year.

Yet she met her current teammates long before then. Sophomore libero Madison Wojciechowski played on Tryon's varsity team at Marymount high school, and sophomore hitter Nicole DeCuir played on her Mizuno Long Beach club team.

"It's really good when you play with someone for more than a year or someone that you know for awhile, because you know what you need to really strive," Tryon said.

Though focused on winning an Ivy League championship, Tryon hasn't given up her other sports. She hopes to pursue softball after college and return to the beach in the Association of Volleyball Professionals tournament.

"It could be a long shot," she said, "but I've been working really hard at it."

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