The Austin Aces laid a strong basis, however loads of heavy lifting must be achieved earlier than a berth within the AVP League playoffs may be secured.
Two video games over .500 at 5-3, the Aces mission as one of many groups that can be part of the New York Nitro (10-2) and Miami Mayhem (10-6) within the single-elimination League semifinals. The Nitro will full their four-game common season in Week 7 because the League stays indoors in Southern California on the 18,000-seat Honda Heart in Anaheim.
The marquee sport this weekend comes on Sunday afternoon when the league-leading Nitro and fourth-place Aces sq. off, highlighted by a battle between the Nitro’s Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes and the Aces’ Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss, the pairs who represented the USA within the Paris Olympics. Cheng and Hughes lead the all-time collection 5-3 however misplaced the one assembly in 2024, falling in three units (15-13 within the tiebreaker) within the AVP Chicago Heritage Collection semifinals.
From a standings perspective, the match is extra of a must-win for Manhattan Seaside Open winners Kloth and Nuss, who come into Week 7 at 3-1, than it’s for reigning world champions Cheng and Hughes, who’ve gone 5-1. A 2-2 file by the Aces probably would maintain them firmly within the playoff combine, however a sub-.500 mark would possibly open doorways for the three groups with dropping data that stay alive.
CBS Sports activities Community will broaden its protection of the AVP League to 4 hours on Sunday, airing each video games dwell from 4 pm. to eight p.m. Jap.
Kloth and Nuss on Saturday evening will face Geena Urango and Toni Rodriguez (1-3) of the San Diego Smash, who’ve been idle because the League’s third week. The Smash are 2-6, however loom as a postseason X-factor on the backside of the League standings since – regardless that it might require an enormous uphill climb – their absolute best file is 10-6.
The important thing to a successful weekend for the Aces very effectively might be their males’s pair of veterans Paul Lotman and Billy Allen, who went 0-2 throughout Week 2 in Miami then gained each of their matches in Austin on the fourth collection cease.
Lotman and Allen face robust sledding in opposition to USA Olympians Chase Budinger and Miles Evans (1-3) of the Smash and the Nitro’s Taylor Crabb and Taylor Sander, the AVP Huntington Seaside winners who are available at 5-1.
“It’s been each arduous and enjoyable to look at with out taking part in (the final two weeks). This League is so new that I’m not even certain who to root for as a result of I’m probably not certain the way it impacts us whereas I’m watching,” Allen mentioned with a chuckle throughout an interview with Volleyball Journal.
“However this week is de facto necessary. We put ourselves in a great spot by doing effectively in Austin the final time we performed. Most of our focus is on our aspect. Paul and I’ve tried to care for our matches and belief that our ladies’s workforce will do what they do.
“We positively wish to contribute to this workforce and we knew stepping into that we had been paired with a really robust ladies’s (duo),” added Allen, one of many AVP’s elder statesmen at age 43. “We simply wish to do our half and we’re hoping to tug out extra wins within the final two occasions.”
Billy provided some perception on the aggressive nature of the League and the challenges introduced by their opponents in Anaheim.
“All people within the League is hard,” he mentioned. “I haven’t seemed on the bracket as soon as and thought, ‘Oh, we’ve obtained a simple weekend.’ The Taylors have superb robust serving so we’re going to be ready to combat that off, whereas staying in system as a lot as potential. Chase and Miles are an excellent defensive workforce. Miles may be very quick again there and Chase places up an enormous block, so it’s going to be a flat-out battle. Towards them, we’re simply hoping to have the ability to side-out in opposition to that protection and range our offense a little bit bit.”
Allen is an assistant coach for Stanford’s high-powered seashore program and lives in Northern California. Former USA indoor Olympian Lotman, 38, resides in Southern California. Their long-distance pairing in 2024 has jelled regardless of a dearth of follow time.
“We’ve had one follow this yr,” Billy mentioned. “I flew all the way down to San Diego earlier than Huntington (in mid-Might) and we obtained a weekend in collectively. Aside from that, it’s simply been displaying as much as tournaments and taking part in, which is sort of why we each are pleasantly stunned with being in (this) place. One of many causes Paul and I joined this yr was we appeared fairly aligned with the place we’re at with volleyball.”
The partnership with the 6-foot-7 Lotman produced outcomes that exceeded Allen’s expectations.
“I’ve a full-time job and going into the season, I used to be simply grateful to play in a few AVPs,” he mentioned. “We did higher than we thought, and we certified for the League, which was superior. Every thing has been simply icing on the cake.
“Yearly the final couple of years has been a year-to-year resolution for me. I’m undecided how for much longer I’m going (to play on the AVP), but when I’ve a superb accomplice, I’m in the primary draw and I really feel aggressive, then I’m going to maintain doing it.”
In the meantime, the Palm Seaside Ardour (4-8) shut out the common season, having a long-shot chance of cracking the ultimate 4 in the event that they win all of their matches.
A loaded lineup on the ladies’s aspect in Anaheim consists of not solely the 2 USA Olympic pairs however the silver medalists from the Paris Video games, the Ardour’s Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson (3-3) of Canada. The match pitting Mel and Brandie in opposition to Cheng and Hughes on Saturday evening is one other spotlight of Week 7. Their all-time collection is tied 5-5. The wildly widespread Canadian stars additionally will face Urango and Rodriguez on Sunday afternoon.
Nonetheless, the Ardour’s Paul Dalhausser and Avery Drost (1-5), who’ve absorbed some robust losses (20-18 within the third set to Lotman-Allen and 16-14 within the tiebreaker to the Brooklyn Blaze’s Cody Caldwell and Seain Cook dinner), are underdogs of their matches in opposition to the dynamic Taylors and Budinger-Evans.
The weekend streaming/TV schedule will see the 2 video games on Saturday evening streamed dwell on the free Bally Dwell app and ballylive.com. These 4 matches will probably be archived on the AVP’s free YouTube channel shortly after completion.
As famous, each video games on Sunday will air dwell completely on the CBSSN cable channel. A replay will probably be proven at midnight Jap. The 4 matches from Sunday will go up on the AVP’s YouTube channel 10 days after the dwell telecast, in accordance with the AVP’s media-rights settlement with CBS Sports activities.
Listed below are the lineups on the Honda Heart in Anaheim for the seventh of eight regular-season AVP League weekends:
Saturday
Austin Aces (5-3) vs. San Diego Smash (2-6)
Ladies (6 p.m. Pacific): Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss (Aces, 3-1) vs. Geena Urango and Toni Rodriguez (Smash, 1-3).
Males (7 p.m.): Paul Lotman and Billy Allen (Aces, 2-2) vs. Chase Budinger and Miles Evans (Smash, 1-3).
New York Nitro (10-2) vs. Palm Seaside Ardour (4-8)
Ladies (8 p.m.): Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes (Nitro, 5-1) vs. Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson (Ardour, 3-3).
Males (9 p.m.): Taylor Crabb and Taylor Sander (Nitro, 5-1) vs. Phil Dalhausser and Avery Drost (Ardour, 1-5).
Sunday
Palm Seaside Ardour vs. San Diego Smash
Ladies (1 p.m. Pacific): Humana-Paredes–Wilkerson (Ardour) vs. Urango-Rodriguez (Smash).
Males (2 p.m.): Dalhausser-Drost (Ardour) vs. Budinger–Evans (Smash).
New York Nitro vs. Austin Aces
Ladies (3 p.m.): Cheng-Hughes (Nitro) vs. Kloth-Nuss (Aces).
Males (4 p.m.): Taylor Crabb–Sander (Nitro) vs. Lotman-Allen (Aces).
The outcomes from every match within the collection will depend 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. Every workforce will play 4 regular-season video games. The primary criterion for advancing to the playoffs is workforce successful proportion.
