The Ashford and Sherman parents' crash into the Adriatic Sea is the defining bereavement behind Willa Ashford and Colleen Sherman's bond. The loss left them without their parents, but also brought the two girls together as each other's only family; years later, that shared history would give their volleyball partnership a meaning beyond competition.

The Flight and Its Aftermath

Willa and Colleen's parents were traveling together to an event in Croatia when the small plane carrying them crashed into the Adriatic Sea. The crash left both girls orphaned. Neither had siblings, so the loss did not leave them with other brothers or sisters to share the same family history: they had only one another.

The narrative presents the disaster retrospectively, as part of the history Willa carries while facing a return to competition. It does not describe the flight itself or the immediate aftermath. Its significance emerges instead through the life that followed: two young people joined by bereavement became the closest family either had.

From Shared Loss to Partnership

The girls' relationship grew alongside their athletic lives. Willa had first won a gold medal in indoor volleyball, then switched to beach volleyball ten years before the events surrounding her comeback. Colleen, already a veteran of the beach circuit, taught Willa the ropes. Their connection on the sand developed in parallel with their closeness away from it, and the novel characterizes them as sisters as well as teammates.

That history distinguishes Colleen from a replaceable sporting partner. When Willa considers playing again after Colleen's disappearance and presumed death, she cannot imagine having another teammate. The pain is sharpened by the earlier crash: Colleen was the person Willa had relied on since they became each other's family, and the person she would once have turned to when life became unbearable.

Grief Beyond the Crash

The crash's effects remain present through Willa's later grief, though the book distinguishes the two losses. Her parents died in the plane crash; years later, Colleen disappeared and was believed dead. Willa's devastation at losing Colleen was intensified by the fact that this was the friend who had remained beside her after their parents' deaths. Colleen's absence reopened the question of how Willa could go on without the person who had been her closest support.

After Colleen's disappearance and presumed death, Willa hung up her bikini and vowed not to look back. She took an unpaid assistant coaching position at a high school and found that she loved teaching the sport, even as she considered the possibility of a coaching career. Her withdrawal from playing thus followed a second bereavement, not the plane crash itself, but the crash explains why losing Colleen carried the force of losing the last member of her family.

Legacy and Return

Willa eventually agreed to compete in the Serenidad tournament, the final opportunity for a United States team to earn a place in the next Olympic Games. After soul-searching and conversations with her longtime coach, Vic, she understood the decision as a defense of the legacy she and Colleen had made together. The crash had first bound their lives through loss; their years as close friends and elite teammates gave that bond a shared sporting legacy worth continuing.

The disaster is therefore not simply background tragedy. It establishes the emotional stakes beneath Willa's return: she is trying to preserve what she and Colleen built, even when Colleen can no longer stand beside her on the court. Later, when Willa considers her future, she says she will start coaching, a choice that carries forward her attachment to volleyball in a different role. The narrative links this commitment to a past in which family, friendship, and the sport became intertwined, without suggesting that a new career can undo the losses that began with the crash.