Life's a beach for top volleyballer | Rotorua Sport | Surfing, Rugby, Soccer, Football, Cricket in Rotorua

Beach volleyball isn't all sun, sand and good times - it's damned hard work and Rotorua's Marnie Grant has the sore feet to prove it.

Back in the Bay of Plenty after finishing her physical education degree at Otago University this year, Grant, one of New Zealand's best indoor and outdoor players, has been training at Mount Maunganui for the upcoming national beach season.

"My muscles in my feet have never been so sore," she told The Daily Post after a week of playing, practising and running on the sands at the Mount.

The conditions have been made harder by the wind - not a friend of beach volleyballers anywhere - which has whistled down the beach most days.

"We've been chasing balls down the beach all week," the athletic 25-year-old laughs in the comfort and shelter of her parents' Rotorua home.

Tonight the laughter may be a bit more on the nervous side as Grant, of Te Arawa descent, is one of three finalists for the Trillian Trust's New Zealand Maori Sportswoman of the Year Award. Grant isn't the only Bay of Plenty finalist with Steamers' captain Wayne Ormond in the running for the men's top award.

Grant says it's a great honour to be nominated after winning the Te Arawa title earlier this year but she's not holding her breath for any further accolades.

"I actually honestly don't expect to win - I'm just stoked to be going and to be meeting some of the people there," she modestly says of her chances.

Grant is up against some top performers with tennis professional Sally Stephens and New Zealand women's basketball captain and touch player Leanne Walker the other finalists.

While Grant plays down her chances, it's easy to see why the judges have decided she is worthy of nomination.

At 183cm tall, Grant is an agile blocker and midcourt player indoors while outdoors she covers the sands on defence and attack.

She has been a national indoor volleyball representative since she was 17 after being introduced to the game while in the third form at Rotorua's John Paul College. By the time Grant had moved through to the seventh form, dreams of playing netball for the Silver Ferns were replaced with the real live action of taking on Australia in transtasman volleyball battles.

Over the ensuing years volleyball, and more recently the professional beach hybrid version, have taken Grant around the world.

She spent a year on an athletic scholarship at the University of Hawaii and has travelled to Asia to compete in both indoor and beach volleyball competitions.

The influence of America, where "everybody plays volleyball", is still with Grant with the slightest of an American accent remaining.

A career highlight was attending the World Student Games in Sicily in 1997.

This year she was voted the most valuable player of the national volleyball championships where her Te Puke club side swept to their third consecutive title.

Obviously Grant was a star in that effort but off the court she also worked hard, studying at night to complete her degree a year early. Now her education is almost over and next year she plans to undertake a one-year teaching diploma in Tauranga.

Teaching is not really the ideal career but Grant wants a backup if she can't find the job she's after.

"I'd really like to train athletes and teams in exercise prescription and management," she says.

Over the summer Grant will be at the beach, teaming with Jo Waller and taking part in the national and Bay of Plenty events, chasing ranking points for another overseas excursion.

The top ranked Kiwi players get invited to overseas events where they play for good pots and have a lot, sometimes all, expenses paid. The New Zealand circuit isn't that lucrative and many of the best overseas players tend to arrive for the Kiwi AAA events with the big prizes.

The sport looks pretty glamorous from the outside but Grant says it's hard work with the temperature and hot sands causing anything from headaches and dehydration to blisters.

It also takes away some of the natural charm of the beach.

"The beach for me is more of a training ground - when I'm finished I tend to go home."