Ciarelli, Family Share Victory

It went unnoticed by most fans around the awards stand at the $150,000 Miller Lite Open beach volleyball tournament Sunday at Seal Beach.

But to Huntington Beach’s Cammy Ciarelli, and the rest of her family, it meant everything.

Ciarelli, while accepting the championship trophy, by publicly thanking her partner, Holly McPeak of Manhattan Beach, then her family, friends and her sponsors.

“And most of all,” she said. “I would like to thank my father.”

The memory of her father, the late Doug Chalmers, was with Ciarelli throughout her and McPeak’s 14-11 victory over Angela Rock and Nancy Reno in the championship match Sunday.

Chalmers died Aug. 6 after a long bout with lung cancer.

“My father has been a huge inspiration for me all my life,” Ciarelli said. “He was there at all the tournaments--Seal Beach, Manhattan and Hermosa.

“It was really sad not to have him here this weekend. The rest of the family was here. (Husband) Rocky’s family was here. Everyone was thinking of him.”

The past two weeks have been tough for Ciarelli and her family. Her father was taken off life support Aug. 6, only a few hours after Cammy left to play in a tournament in Grand Haven, Mich.

“The family talked about it,” Rocky said, “and Doug thought it was best that Cammy go play in the tournament.”

She and McPeak reached the finals at Grand Haven, but their hopes for a fifth-consecutive tournament victory ended with a loss to Jackie Silva and Linda Hanley in the final.

Ciarelli returned to Huntington Beach last Sunday. The funeral was Tuesday and the tournament started Saturday.

“I think volleyball has helped her through this,” Rocky said. “It has been a rough two weeks for all of us.”

Her family lived across the street from Laguna Beach High, where she was a standout athlete. She played volleyball at UCLA from 1979-82.

“My dad never really pushed me into one sport,” she said. “But he always helped, taking me to club practices, going to all the matches.”

Ciarelli said she wanted to quit at one point while at UCLA, but her father talked her out of it.

“I wanted to quit and take a waitress job,” she said. “He convinced me to stay with it (college).”

Cammy stayed at UCLA to earn a degree. She also started a family with Rocky. They have two preschool-age children, Felicia and Tony.

She began playing on the beach in 1990, and formed a partnership with McPeak midway through the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals’ tour season.

They have won five tournaments together. McPeak clinched the $65,000 tour bonus pool with Sunday’s victory, and Ciarelli can lock up second place at Hermosa Beach in two weeks.

Sunday, they built and maintained a comfortable two-point lead until breaking it open late in the match. Leading, 11-9, they put it away on an ace by McPeak and a kill by Ciarelli to go up by four.

After the match, someone asked Ciarelli if she was dedicating the victory to the memory of her father.

“I think it has to be that way,” she said. “I’ll never really come out and say that, but that’s how I’ll feel.”