The second go-round of the revolutionary AVP League will characteristic the 4 groups that didn’t play on the opening weekend in Los Angeles. It’s a star-studded group replete with quite a few American marquee gamers and the largest names from Canada.
Wildly well-liked Canadians Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wikerson, representing the Palm Seaside Ardour, will experience a wave of momentum into South Florida for Week 2 of the League, which shall be performed on Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon on the Onerous Rock Tennis Heart in Miami Gardens, Florida, a venue that’s a part of the Miami Dolphins’ Onerous Rock Stadium advanced.
All eight of the matches shall be streamed at no cost on the Bally Stay app and ballylive.com and the matches shall be archived on the AVP’s free YouTube channel.
Mel and Brandie adopted their run to a silver within the Paris Olympics by successful the AVP’s third and closing Heritage Sequence bracket-style match in Chicago, going 5-0 to say their third AVP title as a staff. Alongside the way in which, they took down U.S. Olympians Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes, then pulled out an air-tight three-set victory within the closing over American Olympians Tayrn Kloth and Kristen Nuss (15-13 within the tiebreaker).
Teaming with the Canadians on the Ardour are Phil Dalhausser, the AVP’s elder statesman who’s going sturdy at age 44, and Avery Drost. A four-time USA Olympian who took house the gold with Todd Rogers within the 2008 Beijing Video games, the 6-foot-9 Dalhausser nonetheless is skinny and really a lot stays a beast on the sand.
Although pro-beach volleyball has turn into a secondary focus for Phil, who not competes internationally, he and Drost needs to be discounted in any match. They reached the semifinals of the 2023 Chicago Gold Sequence occasion and certified for the League with strong finishes this season of seventh in Huntington Seaside, seventh on the Manhattan Seaside Open and fifth in Chicago.
However that simply scratches the floor of the star energy in Miami. Former LSU geats Kloth and Nuss will signify the Austin Aces, who additionally quantity the veteran pair of 42-year-old Billy Allen and 38-year-old Paul Lotman.
TKN (as they’re recognized to their legion of followers) had been automated qualifiers into the League primarily based on their first-place end within the iconic Manhattan Seaside Open. In addition they had been runners-up in Huntington Seaside and Chicago, falling in three in each to Mel and Brandie, and took gold medals on the 2024 world tour in Elite16 occasions in Esphino, Portugal, and Gstaad, Switzerland.
Lotman, a former member of the USA males’s indoor nationwide staff and an Olympian in 2012, and Allen performed a task within the improvement of American younger weapons Miles Partain and Andy Benesh, who completed fifth within the Paris Olympics. Lotman teamed steadily with Partain and helped the dynamic lefty win his first AVP title, in Atlanta in 2022, which stays Lotman’s solely home victory.
Allen, who has toiled on the AVP and varied different home collection since 2004, and Benesh twice superior to AVP semifinals (the MBO and Chicago) in 2021. However the older guys opted to associate up in 2024 and produced two fifths (Huntington Seaside and the MBO) and a seventh (Chicago), which bought them the chance for extra paydays within the League.
The Dallas Dream will characteristic younger duos in Partain (age 22) and the 6-foot-9 Benesh (29), and Hailey Harward (26) and 6-foot-4 Kylie Deberg (25).
Harward and Deberg vividly illustrate the infusion of expertise that flows into the AVP from the collegiate ranks on the ladies’s aspect. Harward received NCAA titles in 2021 and ‘22 enjoying for Coach Dain Blanton’s dominant USC program. Deberg was an indoor star at Missouri and LSU, then performed her closing yr of eligibility on the seashore for Coach Russell Brock’s powerhouse Sandy Tigs. Hailey and Kylie made the minimize for the League with a fifth-place end on Huntington Seaside and ninths at Manhattan Seaside and Chicago.
Pertain and Benesh have constructed appreciable momentum for the reason that Olympics, ending second within the MBO and rolling by the Chicago occasion with out dropping a set.
If greatness within the AVP is outlined by success within the Manhattan Seaside Open, the Wimbledon of seashore volleyball, then Trevor Crabb has locked up all-time-great standing. Trevor has received 9 AVP tournaments, however has 4 plaques on the Manhattan Seaside Pier, in 2019 with Reid Priddy, in 2021 and ‘22 with Tri Bourne and this yr with 6-foot-7 veteran Theo Brunner. Trevor and Theo will be a part of wild-card choices April Ross and Alix Klineman on the Miami Mayhem.
April and Alix not too long ago had infants and the gold-medal duo from the 2021 Tokyo Olympics have balanced the calls for of motherhood and seashore volleyball. Ross, 42, ranks among the many greatest ever to signify the USA on the sand, additionally incomes an Olympic silver medal with Jen Kessy within the 2012 London Video games and a bronze medal with Kerri Walsh Jennings in Rio in 2016.
April and the 6-foot-5 Klineman, 34, confirmed indicators of getting their sand legs again with a ninth on the MBO. Ross additionally hopped into the unaffiliated Hermosa Seaside Open on the eleventh hour two weeks in the past and took fourth, teaming with UCLA four-time All-American Lexy Denaburg. Matches in opposition to the Canadian silver medalists and TKN this weekend ought to communicate volumnes in regards to the new mothers’ readiness.
Right here’s how the schedule will break down on the Onerous Rock Tennis Heart (all instances Japanese):
Saturday
Austin Aces vs. Dallas Dream: Kloth-Nuss (Aces) vs. Harward-Deberg (Dream), 6 p.m.; Lotman-Allen (Aces) vs. Partain-Benesh (Dream), 7 p.m.
Miami Mayhem vs. Palm Seaside Ardour: Trevor Crabb-Brunner (Mayhem) vs. Dalhausser-Drost (Ardour), 8 p.m.; Ross-Klineman (Mayhem) vs. Humana-Paredes-Wilkerson (Ardour), 9 p.m.
Sunday
Dallas Dream vs. Palm Seaside Ardour: Harward-Deberg (Dream) vs. Humana-Paredes-Wilkerson (Ardour), 1 p.m.; Partain-Benesh (Dream) vs. Dalhausser-Drost (Ardour), 2 p.m.
Miami Mayhem vs. Austin Aces: Trevor Crabb-Brunner (Mayhem) vs. Lotman-Allen (Aces), 3 p.m.; Ross-Klineman (Mayhem) vs. Kloth-Nuss (Aces).
The outcomes from every match within the eight-week collection will go towards figuring out the 4 qualifiers for the bracket-style championship rounds on Nov. 9 and 10 on the Dignity Well being Sports activities Park in Carson, California.