Zana Muno: Beach Volleyball’s ‘Hooptidoodah Girl’

HERMOSA BEACH, Calif. — There are a number of aspects of Zana Muno’s skillset that could be described as difficult. It is, for example, difficult to know where Muno, the AVP leader in digs per set in 2022, will be on defense. Sometimes it seems that she could very well be everywhere.

It is difficult, near impossible, really, to win a joust against Muno, an expert at the wrist-away swipe, especially when she is on the right. It is difficult to get an ace down on one of the best passers in America.

Yet it is never especially difficult to take a look at Muno on the court and know exactly how she’s feeling.

There she is, in Manhattan Beach, having fallen to her knees, fists clenched, screaming in triumph.

There she is, taking inhales bigger than it seems her lungs could handle, after another of her innumerable exhausting rallies. There she is, throwing fists full of sand at the ground in Chicago when a point didn’t go her way.

There she is, lying flat on her back in Hermosa Beach, smile so wide her eyes are nearly closed, celebrating a Cinderella run in 2019.

And there she is, just plays later, jumping in a contagious, ineffable joy.

She’s a feeler, Muno, a “hoopdidoodah girl,” as she describes herself. It is both her greatest strength and also what keeps her coming back to the game and beaches she has played since she could walk.

“I posted a photo recently and it’s like, how cool is it that I feel these emotions on a daily basis? Nobody at their work is on the ground and that is so cool,” Muno said on SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter. “That’s why sports are so incredible and why I still do this and why I love it so much.

“You watch a sporting event and you see the emotions that these people are feeling and I’ve had great perspective because I live with two girls who work 9-5 and I get to scream and yell and jump and to feel these emotions and the lows suck but how special is that? I think being human is the coolest thing in the world and we get to be so human. We get to experience the biggest range of emotions and truly feel what it’s like to feel and that, I am addicted to.”

In an era marked by mindfulness, introspection, turning inward, and mostly bottling emotion, Muno is a powder keg of them, exploding with joy, laughter, love, sadness, disappointment — the full gamut, for you to see, each play thrumming with a passion that makes her one of the most-watched and followed players on the AVP. Not that she isn’t mindful. Her mindfulness just looks a bit different than the widely accepted recipe is all. A recent favorite book of hers is The Confident Mind, a manifesto on building confidence, written by a man who trains U.S. Military Academy cadets.

“Learning about how to improve and perfect but also just be the best that you can be has been something I did not expect to love as much,” Muno said. “I thought I’d love the playing and the tournaments and being a professional but it’s been the small things that I’ve loved.”

It’s important to note that she does love playing. Loves being a professional. Loves traveling, finding cute restaurants in Aguascalientes, Mexico. Loves exploring the Gold Coast gem that is Coolangatta, Australia. Loves a rainy trip to a map dot in the Czech Republic, and a hole in the wall acai spot in Brazil. What she loves above all of that — the playing, the traveling, the meals and jetlagged late nights and early mornings — is that she gets to do it with someone. Whoever that someone is doesn’t so much matter as does the experience of building something with another human being, be it a team, a relationship, or even a one-off partnership.

“I love humans. I think that’s why I struggled so much last year. I love the camaraderie, the energy, the eye contact. I feed off that. I feed off the crowd. I love energy,” Muno said. “That’s what really gets me going. It’s not about the meaning of the game, it’s about the energy. It gets me going. There’s something where you’re playing and building something and understanding and empathy, whatever it is, it’s just so, so important.”

Muno mentions that she struggled in 2022, yet her on-paper resume tells a different story. She had success with the full spectrum of humans that this sport offers. She won with big blockers (Toni Rodriguez) and small (Allie Wheeler). She won with the more stoic and serious (Lauren Fendrick) and a self-described gypsy soul (Brandie Wilkerson). She’s won with rookies (Crissy Jones) and the greatest to ever do it (Kerri Walsh Jennings). In the last two AVP seasons alone, she has made a semifinal with three different players — Kelley Kolinske, Wilkerson, Jones — who couldn’t be more different in personality type and playing style.

“I feel like I’m so much more flexible. I would never consider myself a flexible human being. I’m very particular and very not flexible, but it’s forced me to become more flexible in every aspect of my game to my off court,” Muno said. “Micah [Ma’a, her boyfriend who plays professionally in Turkey] was my partner in half my practices last year, God bless him. I learned to make the most of whatever situation and try to find value in anything. I go into practice and some people say ‘I want this’ or ‘I need this.’ I don’t need anything anymore because I’m not expecting anything. Even from sleep to anxiety to everything, I now know I can perform at a high level without a lot of things going planned and that’s comforting. It doesn’t have to be perfect and I can still find a way and still feel confident in that. I was forced to learn it quick and I’m grateful I did.”

A fair question you may be wondering at this point in Muno’s story is if she chooses this fate for herself. Is she partner hopping in a perpetual search for the right fit? In a rare twist in beach volleyball, Muno has never actually dumped a partner. She’s been on the receiving end of all of the switches, although some — take one-off events with Jess Gaffney, Rodriguez, Sarah Pavan, and Fendrick — were more or less planned to be single events. For the most part, it has been blockers seeking greener pastures, leaving Muno to win and win and win some more with whomever happens to be available.

“It’s hard to detach from the stress of it all but there was a lot of good moments and I also played with some ridiculously good volleyball players. They made it pretty easy. It was a fun time but going into this year I was like ‘Please, God, I just want one partner this year’ because it was a lot,” Muno said, laughing. “I do think I thrive in chaos. I try so hard to not but I think I really thrive in the chaos. It would be nice to just be chill and have things normal.”

For one, brief, sublime moment — maybe even a full week! — things seemed to be normal. After playing well in the King of the Court with Walsh Jennings in early March, Muno had a partner for the entire month of April. They signed up for three events in Brazil: two Challenges in Itapema and Saquarema, and an Elite 16 in Uberlandia. Days before they were set to leave for Itapema, Walsh Jennings had to withdraw with an injury. Muno, then, did what she does best: she scrambled. Wheeler filled in last-minute for Walsh Jennings in Itapema, and Carly Kan answered the call for AVP New Orleans.

“It’s just volleyball,” Muno said of her ability to succeed without a set team. “It’s the same sport. It really wasn’t challenging but it can be emotionally challenging more than anything else. There’s something unsaid about a team and building something and feeling and not tiptoeing and that took a toll for me by the end of the year. I was tired.”

And so 2023 begins very much like 2022: Her first four events will be played with four different partners. Not that she’d design it this way, but it alas allowed Muno to do what she also loves most about this sport: Chasing something most won’t, so she can feel what most can’t.

“I love anyone who’s pursuing a dream because you’re putting yourself out there,” she said. “I could have a friend from high school start a straw company and I’ll buy it, because you’re vulnerable pursuing your passion, especially when you’re the performer. It’s a judgement on us, whatever we’re doing. That takes a lot and it takes a lot of courage and I respect anybody who is taking that step and being courageous and doing that because it’s super not easy.”