HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah - A member of the Wisconsin Army National Guard competed among the military's best beach volleyball players at the 2013 Armed Forces Volleyball Championships from May 2-6 at Hill Air Force Base, Utah.
One of just four players representing the Army, Spc. Shandra Pulver, a UH-60 Black Hawk crew chief from Verona, Wis., and her teammate, Capt. Jen Rayburn, of Chicago, advanced to the tournament quarterfinals before falling to a team from the Navy.
But being one of the few selected for the Army's two two-person teams was no small accomplishment. Pulver endured a three-week trial camp and tryout that included 42 beach volleyball players hailing from the active Army, the Army National Guard and the Army Reserve.
She also overcame a broken ankle that had sidelined her since January.
"I was nervous about my tryout. I broke my ankle in January, and I had to really push hard," she said. "It was not fully healed. It was probably about 80 percent healed by the time I got here."
A passion for volleyball runs in her veins though, and she ultimately emerged as one of the top four players in the Army.
"I train probably two-and-a-half hours a day doing yoga, swimming, running, even crossfit," Pulver said of her training regimen. "The majority of it is actually touching the ball and being around the volleyball world.
"It's a passion, and you just have to want it. You go out and watch, and you study it all the time."
An all-conference indoor volleyball player out of Wisconsin Heights High School in Black Earth, Wis., Pulver also played collegiate volleyball at Madison Area Technical College. In addition to serving in the Wisconsin Army National Guard's 147th Aviation Battalion, she also coaches the girls'junior varsity volleyball team at Madison La Follette High School. When she isn't playing among the military's best, she is playing in local co-ed leagues and tournaments to keep her skills sharp.
Pulver is no stranger to the Armed Forces Volleyball Championship. She played for the Army's indoor volleyball team in 2004 and 2005 after learning about the Army's athletic program during her 2003 deployment to Kuwait. She recently returned from a deployment to Kosovo and learned that the military was adding a beach volleyball tournament to its slate in 2012. Unable to play while deployed, Pulver returned and made one of the two teams in 2013.
Her Army teammates went on to win the 2013 tournament as did an Army men's team in their respective competitions.