Karolina "Kaya" Marciniak (CLUB MED ACADEMIES)
Karolina "Kaya" Marciniak (nèe Sowala) was born in Poland where she received her Bachelor's degree in physical education. When she began her professional beach career, she was given the chance to represent her home country of Poland on the FIVB Swatch Tour between 2009-12. Two of the highest achievements in her youth career were third place in U21 World Championship in Brighton, England in 2008 and third place in the U20 European Championship in Scheveningen, Netherlands in 2007. In 2014, Marciniak received her Master's degree in sport business management from Webber International University. She began her college coaching career in 2017 with the FAU beach volleyball program as an assistant coach.
Kaya was one of the top performing athletes in the National Volleyball League. She has taken 12 victories between 2013-2016 ( most with Pricilla Piantadosi-Lima) and multiple awards for her efforts. Currently, she is competing on AVP and has recorded two top-five finishes in 2017 and 3rd place in 2018 while managing and coaching beach volleyball program at Club Med Academies - full-time volleyball academy in Port St. Lucie, Florida.
Marciniak is married to fellow AVP professional Piotr Marciniak. The couple welcomed their first child, Michael, in March of 2019.
Nicole christner (S3)
Nicole had a rocky childhood being brought up in Detroit in the 1970’s, with a hard family life. She was adopted at age 12, where her 6th grade teacher, Mike Lindstom (Mr. L), taught her to play volleyball. She instantly fell in love with the game, and Mr. L coached her all the way through her senior year. He was her coach for 7 years, and during that time they played travel indoor VB, as well as school ball, and every year at the Junior Olympics in Chicago. Nicole went to college on a full-ride at Winthrop College in Rock Hill, SC. Mr. L changed her life, and she always wanted to continue his legacy of creating a passion for volleyball that is life-long, while supporting young athletes with love and kindness.
Nicole created a USAV indoor adult women’s team that traveled around the USA playing tournaments from 1998-2008. During that time she also coached many different indoor teams for clubs, YMCA’s and volunteer programs. She started playing beach in 2001, and played Open-level tournaments all over the country. Her most memorable tournament was getting to play a final (from a local tournament) in the AVP stadium court in Atlanta. Even though it was in between pro games, it was amazing to be on stadium court and have her name on the scoreboard.
Since 2002, Nicole has been involved in many facets of the volleyball life: she has managed pro-mens teams, ran a yearly tournament series for Bud Light, and formed and directed tournaments for Red Bull, including the “Spiked” tournaments, that brought Olympians Todd Rodgers and Phil Daulhauser to let the winners play a pair of Olympians as a prize.
In 2015, Nicole started coaching full-time juniors beach. As a self-proclaimed “volley-nerd” she has spent countless hours watching and studying pro videos on every facet of the game. She realized her niche is having a keen eye to be able to break down mechanics in fundaments to athletes at all levels. Nicole has been doing private lessons and private camps year around for the past 6 years, and now has private clients in 7 states.
In 2017 Nicole began learning about college recruitment, and is now a college recruitment specialist, with a 100% placement rate.
In July 2019, Nicole had the pleasure of coaching Carra Sassack and Ashley Vincent to an AVP National Championship title in Hermosa Beach, CA, in front of a full stadium and on live TV! Then, in July 2020, Nicole had the pleasure of coaching Bella and Angel Ferrari to an AAU National Championship title. The Ferrary twins later were named All-Americans.
It is Nicole’s mission to help any child get better at volleyball and create that lifelong passion to the game that she had instilled into her by Mr L back in 1988. Now she gets to see the entire process through to the NCAA with many athletes, and she feels blessed everyday to be part of it.
Pri Piantadosi- lima (OPTIMUM BEACH)
Pri has been coached by some of the best coaches in history of beach volleyball. Her mentors have all gathered multiple Olympic births and medals throughout the years. She has also coached alongside some of beach volleyball’s greatest such as Sinjin Smith, Randy Stocklos, Misty May-Treanor, Gene Selznick and Adriano “Ticao” to name a few.
Coach Pri specializes in coaching the mental side of the game, teaching confidence, certainty, mental toughness, growth mindset and helping her players find their intrinsic motivation. She is one of the best coaches in the country at teaching the key to winning in beach volleyball, setting!
Pri is known for her character, work ethic, volleyball IQ and her strong mental game. Legendary players like Misty May-Treanor, Kerri Walsh, April Ross, Sinjin Smith, Todd Rogers have endorsed her coaching.
- Club Owner & Director
- Rage for Mastery Owner and Founder
- Rise Beach Tour Owner and Founder
- Eckerd College Volunteer Assistant Coach (Indoor and Beach)
- Professional Beach Volleyball Player, 2004-2019 (FIVB World Tour, AVP, Banco do Brasil and The NVL