megan nicole & mcnamara

volleyball school: South Delta

freshman’s future: UCLA

Maybe the most surprising thing you’ll hear about Nicole (left) and Megan McNamara is that, despite being in the spotlight of their sport since the start of their high school careers, they still aren’t accustomed to all of the attention they receive.

“We still get nervous,” admits Megan, right-handed and the mirror-twin of southpaw sister Nicole. “We’re both pretty camera-shy.”

Superstars who helped lead the South Delta Sun Devils to three straight B.C. senior high school indoor championships at the Tsawwassen school, they carry credentials many notches above that in the two-person outdoor game.

With the sand between their toes, the McNamaras have been a nearly unbeatable international duo, battling to the bronze medal at the U-19 World Beach Championships in Portugal, then forging silver at the Youth Olympics in China.

Now, they have written their ticket to a southern California future that has seemed like their destiny since the pair teamed up to win the Canadian Under-16 national beach title in the summer after their eighthgrade year.

Beginning in the fall, they will embark on collegiate careers in Los Angeles at UCLA, a pair of Canadian Bruins ready to test anyone’s notion that the beach game, at its highest levels on this continent, is the exclusive provenance of California girls.

“All of our teammates are from southern California so it will be interesting for two Canadian girls,” says Nicole.

It all started innocently enough for the twins, who discovered their love for the sport at age five.

“We would always vacation in Mexico,” remembers Megan. “We’d be in Puerto Vallarta and we just started passing the ball around.”

Although their home base moves to California later this summer, they’ll still have each other to lean on.