Manhattan Beach Open: UCLA setter Miles Partain is also beach volleyball’s budding star
Miles Partain and Paul Lotman win in straight sets against Avery Drost and Chase Frishman in the AVP Gold Series Manhattan Beach Open volleyball tournament on Saturday, August 20, 2022.(Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Miles Partain and Paul Lotman win in straight sets against Avery Drost and Chase Frishman in the AVP Gold Series Manhattan Beach Open volleyball tournament on Saturday, August 20, 2022.(Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Miles Partain and Paul Lotman win in straight sets against Avery Drost and Chase Frishman in the AVP Gold Series Manhattan Beach Open volleyball tournament on Saturday, August 20, 2022. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Miles Partain and Paul Lotman win in straight sets against Avery Drost and Chase Frishman in the AVP Gold Series Manhattan Beach Open volleyball tournament on Saturday, August 20, 2022. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Miles Partain and Paul Lotman win in straight sets against Avery Drost and Chase Frishman in the AVP Gold Series Manhattan Beach Open volleyball tournament on Saturday, August 20, 2022. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Miles Partain and Paul Lotman win in straight sets against Avery Drost and Chase Frishman in the AVP Gold Series Manhattan Beach Open volleyball tournament on Saturday, August 20, 2022. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Miles Partain and Paul Lotman win in straight sets against Avery Drost and Chase Frishman in the AVP Gold Series Manhattan Beach Open volleyball tournament on Saturday, August 20, 2022. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Miles Partain and Paul Lotman win in straight sets against Avery Drost and Chase Frishman in the AVP Gold Series Manhattan Beach Open volleyball tournament on Saturday, August 20, 2022. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Miles Partain and Paul Lotman win in straight sets against Avery Drost and Chase Frishman in the AVP Gold Series Manhattan Beach Open volleyball tournament on Saturday, August 20, 2022. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Miles Partain digs for the ball as he wins with Paul Lotman in straight sets against John Hyden and Logan Webber in the AVP Gold Series Manhattan Beach Open volleyball tournament on Saturday, August 20, 2022. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Miles Partain and Paul Lotman win in straight sets against Avery Drost and Chase Frishman in the AVP Gold Series Manhattan Beach Open volleyball tournament on Saturday, August 20, 2022. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Miles Partain and Paul Lotman win in straight sets against Avery Drost and Chase Frishman in the AVP Gold Series Manhattan Beach Open volleyball tournament on Saturday, August 20, 2022. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Miles Partain spikes the ball as he wins with Paul Lotman in straight sets against John Hyden and Logan Webber in the AVP Gold Series Manhattan Beach Open volleyball tournament on Saturday, August 20, 2022. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Miles Partain spikes the ball as he wins with Paul Lotman in straight sets against John Hyden and Logan Webber in the AVP Gold Series Manhattan Beach Open volleyball tournament on Saturday, August 20, 2022. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Miles Partain spikes the ball as he wins with Paul Lotman in straight sets against John Hyden and Logan Webber in the AVP Gold Series Manhattan Beach Open volleyball tournament on Saturday, August 20, 2022. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Miles Partain and Paul Lotman win in straight sets against Avery Drost and Chase Frishman in the AVP Gold Series Manhattan Beach Open volleyball tournament on Saturday, August 20, 2022. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Miles Partain and Paul Lotman win in straight sets against Avery Drost and Chase Frishman in the AVP Gold Series Manhattan Beach Open volleyball tournament on Saturday, August 20, 2022. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Miles Partain and Paul Lotman win in straight sets against Avery Drost and Chase Frishman in the AVP Gold Series Manhattan Beach Open volleyball tournament on Saturday, August 20, 2022. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Miles Partain spikes the ball as he wins with Paul Lotman in straight sets against John Hyden and Logan Webber in the AVP Gold Series Manhattan Beach Open volleyball tournament on Saturday, August 20, 2022. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Miles Partain and Paul Lotman win in three sets against John Hyden and Logan Webber in the AVP Gold Series Manhattan Beach Open volleyball tournament on Saturday, August 20, 2022. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Miles Partain digs for the ball as he wins with Paul Lotman in straight sets against John Hyden and Logan Webber in the AVP Gold Series Manhattan Beach Open volleyball tournament on Saturday, August 20, 2022. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Miles Partain spikes the ball as he wins with Paul Lotman in straight sets against John Hyden and Logan Webber in the AVP Gold Series Manhattan Beach Open volleyball tournament on Saturday, August 20, 2022. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Miles Partain spikes the ball as he wins with Paul Lotman in straight sets against John Hyden and Logan Webber in the AVP Gold Series Manhattan Beach Open volleyball tournament on Saturday, August 20, 2022. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Miles Partain digs for the ball as he wins with Paul Lotman in straight sets against John Hyden and Logan Webber in the AVP Gold Series Manhattan Beach Open volleyball tournament on Saturday, August 20, 2022. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Miles Partain digs for the ball as he wins with Paul Lotman in straight sets against John Hyden and Logan Webber in the AVP Gold Series Manhattan Beach Open volleyball tournament on Saturday, August 20, 2022. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Miles Partain spikes the ball as he wins with Paul Lotman in straight sets against John Hyden and Logan Webber in the AVP Gold Series Manhattan Beach Open volleyball tournament on Saturday, August 20, 2022. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Paul Lotman reacts to winning in three sets with Miles Partain against John Hyden and Logan Webber in the AVP Gold Series Manhattan Beach Open volleyball tournament on Saturday, August 20, 2022. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Miles Partain and Paul Lotman win in three sets against John Hyden and Logan Webber in the AVP Gold Series Manhattan Beach Open volleyball tournament on Saturday, August 20, 2022. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Miles Partain and Paul Lotman win in three sets against John Hyden and Logan Webber in the AVP Gold Series Manhattan Beach Open volleyball tournament on Saturday, August 20, 2022. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Miles Partain and Paul Lotman win in three sets against John Hyden and Logan Webber in the AVP Gold Series Manhattan Beach Open volleyball tournament on Saturday, August 20, 2022. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Miles Partain digs for the ball as he wins with Paul Lotman in straight sets against John Hyden and Logan Webber in the AVP Gold Series Manhattan Beach Open volleyball tournament on Saturday, August 20, 2022. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Miles Partain digs for the ball as he wins with Paul Lotman in straight sets against John Hyden and Logan Webber in the AVP Gold Series Manhattan Beach Open volleyball tournament on Saturday, August 20, 2022. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Paul Lotman digs for the ball as Miles Partain recovers in their win against John Hyden and Logan Webber in the AVP Gold Series Manhattan Beach Open volleyball tournament on Saturday, August 20, 2022. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Miles Partain spikes the ball as he wins with Paul Lotman in straight sets against John Hyden and Logan Webber in the AVP Gold Series Manhattan Beach Open volleyball tournament on Saturday, August 20, 2022. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
MANHATTAN BEACH — Five years ago, Paul Lotman received “the most polite email” from a 16-year-old named Miles Partain, asking if they might be able to play together on the AVP Tour. It ended with “Sincerely, Miles,” as a teenager might address a former Olympian almost twice their age.
Lotman, a former Long Beach State volleyball standout who was on the United States team at the 2012 London Olympics, had another partner at the time. But he knew of Partain, who debuted at age 15 with his brother Marcus — who was 17 — in 2017 and became the youngest duo in history to advance from the AVP qualifier into the main draw.
Lotman, now 36, responded just as politely: “You’re a good player. I know who you are. I hope to play with you in the future.”
Fast forward to 2022, and the Partain-Lotman duo has become a formidable one. After finally teaming up in 2019, they’ve finished in the top three six times out of 11 AVP tournaments. Earlier this month, they notched their first win at the Atlanta Open.
With that, Partain, at age 20, became the second youngest player in AVP history to win a tournament. Partain and Lotman now have a chance to go back-to-back at the Manhattan Beach Open, where they won three straight elimination matches Saturday — losing just one set — to stay alive in the tournament after dropping their first match on Friday.
Partain and Lotman will play Taylor Crabb and Taylor Sander on Sunday at 10 a.m., with the winner facing Tri Bourne and Trevor Crabb in the semifinals.
Winning his first tournament was “super special” to Partain, also a setter for the UCLA volleyball team on the indoor side. Partain was the MPSF Player of the Year last season and an AVCA First Team All-American, helping UCLA notch the best hitting percentage in the country.
Partain played mostly soccer growing up until his mother took him to a volleyball tryout at age 11. He liked it and kept playing, but things didn’t turn serious until his sophomore year at Palisades High School.
Now, volleyball is in Partain’s life year-round, playing the MPSF indoor circuit in the first half of the year and the AVP Tour in the second half. It isn’t too hard switching between indoor and outdoor settings despite the inherent differences, he said.
“There’s not much translation between the two,” Partain said. “With the faster contact (in outdoor), a lot of it’s just different.”
But passing, hitting, serving and blocking are almost a “100 percent translation,” according to Partain. And they are transferring well. Partain leads the tour in kills and attacks, and is second in digs behind Taylor Crabb. Partain is nimble on the beach, stellar at digging out spikes, finding the right soft spots to land kills and using his indoor skillset to set up Loftman.
UCLA beach volleyball coach Stein Metzger, who hasn’t coached Partain but has watched him play, credited Partain’s early success to strong focus, discipline and time management. Most male professional volleyball players don’t peak until they turn 30, according to Metzger.
“I think it’s pretty unbelievable what he’s able to do on the Pro Tour at such a young age,” Metzger said.
Lotman believes Partain has matured both physically and mentally in the three years they have been partners. Lotman takes notice of how Partain always records his own matches, and the first thing he does following the match is to grab the camera to watch it back for his mistakes.
“That’s so unique for a young player,” Lotman said. “They don’t realize how important that is. For him to realize that, and nobody to have to tell him is pretty amazing.”
Partain has taught Lotman a lot because he “looks at the game in such a futuristic way.” The pair didn’t have much time to prepare before playing their first match together, but as soon as Lotman stepped on the court with Partain, he knew the partnership would work out.
“I knew it was something unique and different,” Lotman said. “He was something special. Just a no-brainer to play with him.”
To succeed in volleyball at a young age takes both raw talent and hard work, and Lotman sees both in Partain. Lotman has noticed his younger partner eagerly learning from more experienced players, processing information on the fly and adapting to the advice in real time.
“And he does it every time,” Lotman said. “It’s fun to play with him at his age, but I feel like I’m playing with another professional.”
Partain doesn’t just excel on the courts. He is an Applied Math major at UCLA and was his high school valedictorian. He said he’s been able to juggle all his responsibilities well, but school “probably takes priority.”
Partain agreed discipline is a big value for him, along with consistency and humility — which he described as “knowing the truth about reality, and not thinking you’re more than you are or less than you are.”
The words of an up-and-coming star, spoken with the maturity of a grizzled veteran.
Saturday results
Half of the semifinalists are set for Sunday, with the other half to be determined in the day’s first matches.
Both top seeds have rolled through their respective brackets, with Theo Brunner and Chaim Schalk on the men’s side and Terese Cannon and Sara Sponcil on the women’s side losing just one set each en route to a semifinal berth Sunday.
Brunner and Schalk will face either Andy Benesh and Miles Evans or Jeremy Casebeer and Billy Allen, while Cannon and Sponcil will face either Emily Stockman and Megan Kraft or Sara Hughes and Kelley Kolinske.
The other semifinal on the men’s side will feature Tri Bourne and Trevor Crabb against Lotman and Partain or Taylor Crabb and Sander.
On the women’s side, the other semifinal will see Betsy Flint and Kelly Cheng facing the winner of the match between Zana Muno and Brandie Wilkerson, and Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss.