SAN FRANCISCO — Karissa Cook, a 5-foot-11 setter, spent three of her four seasons on The Farm feeding the ball to Carly Wopat, a 6-2 middle blocker.

The ex-Stanford indoor women’s volleyball teammates expected to join forces for this weekend’s AVP San Francisco Open at Pier 30/32 on the Embarcadero. Then fate intervened.

“Carly was originally able to make it and she really wanted to play, but she got a call from Karch Kiraly,” Cook said.

That would be the head coach of the U.S. Women’s National Team, which is training for the Pan American Games set to begin next week in the Dominican Republic.

“I was like, ‘Alright, if the national team coach calls, that’s OK — I’ll get you in the next tournament,’ ” Cook said.

Suddenly in need of a partner, Cook didn’t have to look far. The 25-year-old rejoined the Cardinal in the fall as an assistant beach volleyball coach. Already on staff as a volunteer assistant coach was Sara Dukes Johnson, a middle blocker at Stanford who was a member of the 2001 NCAA championship team.

Dukes Johnson, 34, went on to play beach volleyball on the AVP Tour from 2006-10.

“She had a lot of success and has a really good record out here,” Cook said. “But she took time off for family, so I kind of convinced her to come out of retirement for the weekend. So I was really lucky to get to play with her today. It was a little bit of a surprise, but I was lucky.”

In Thursday’s qualifier bracket, which included 35 entries, the duo cruised in the morning’s opening round, requiring just 31 minutes to dispatch of their opponents 21-8, 21-12.

Things got tougher in the second round against the No. 3 seed in qualifying, with Cook and Dukes Johnson bowing out 21-14, 21-19 in a match that lasted 35 minutes on Stadium Court.

“The level is obviously very different from the first to second round,” Cook said. “The second team we played had a lot of success out here on the tour, they’re very good and they played great. I wish we could have pulled out that second game. I think we were close to cinching it and we just had a couple of errors, but it was a lot of fun.”

Cook, who grew up in Santa Cruz, wrapped up her NCAA indoor career after the 2012 season, then decided to transfer to Hawaii to play sand volleyball. In 2014, she accumulated a 42-7 record and was named an AVCA All-American, winning three tournaments — including one at Stanford — before finishing as the runner-up at the AVCA Pairs National Championship.

“After playing in Hawaii — that was the most fun ever — I took a year off to do the real-job thing,” Cook said. “So it’s so good to be back, whether coaching or playing or anything, I’m just happy to be back on the sand. So it feels amazing.”

In-and-out of the AVP Tour this season, Cook participated in three of the past four stops.

On the first weekend of May at the Huntington Beach Open, she lost in three sets to the top seed in qualifying with Wopat as her partner. On the first weekend of June at the Seattle Open, she qualified for the main draw after reuniting with Brittany Tiegs, her accomplice at Hawaii.

“I think in the future I’m not going to be as reluctant to jump in,” Cook said. “It’s been such a blast to get to play the last three tournaments, so I’m looking forward to get back into it.”

Is it like riding a bike?

“For the most part,” said Cook, with a grin. “There’s always your days when you might crash the bike, but for the most part it comes back.”

If nothing else, Cook gets to show her pupils at Stanford that she’s still got it.

“I don’t beat up on them as much as I should,” said Cook, with another grin. “I’m very lucky to get to play with them sometimes, I have a blast. Our girls are wonderful. They’re pretty inexperienced on the beach so far, but they’re getting really good. The program is going to do things in the future.”

Email Vytas Mazeika at vmazeika@dailynewsgroup.com; follow him at Twitter.com/dailynewsvytas.