Growing up in Newport Beach, Michael and his family and friends played a lot of beach volleyball. Michael’s dad and his friends used to play a drinking game mixed with beach volleyball that Michael now plays with his dad. The game is called Ace.
In Ace, you start by placing a pack of beers next to one of the poles that holds up the net. Everyone breaks up into two teams on each side of the net. Generally you play with two teams of four or possibly two teams of six. The game is similar to regular beach volleyball, however when someone gets an Ace, the drinking game starts. An Ace is when the ball hits the ground on the other side of the net without anyone on the other team touching the ball. When an Ace occurs, the team who got aced must share a beer. However, once an Ace occurs, a mini game takes place. Both teams try to grab the volleyball and touch it against the pole with the beers under it. Whichever team the person who touches the volleyball to the pole first is on, that team has possession of the ball. During the attempt to get the volleyball to the pole, each team can pass the ball and tackle or hold down other people to try and prevent the person form getting to the pole. The advantage for getting possession of the ball if your team got the Ace is that you can serve the ball the second the team finishes their beer, which is an easy opportunity for another Ace. The defending team advantage for possessing the ball is that they do not need to worry about the other team serving quickly because the other team can’t serve to continue the game without the ball. The game ends when the first team gets to fifteen game points in volleyball, meaning a team served fifteen successful balls over the net and hit the sand inside the court of the opposing team. Ace is just a mini drinking game that is a part of the game of volleyball. Ace just plays off the term used when you get a point where no one on the other team touched the ball. Therefore, the number of Aces doesn’t matter to the score of who wins Ace. Getting more Aces just means that the other team has to drink more and is likely to preform worse.