The second go-round of the progressive AVP League will function 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 most important names from Canada.
Wildly in style Canadians Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wikerson, representing the Palm Seashore Ardour, will journey a wave of momentum into South Florida for Week 2 of the League, which can be performed on Saturday night time and Sunday afternoon on the Arduous Rock Tennis Heart in Miami Gardens, Florida, a venue that’s a part of the Miami Dolphins’ Arduous Rock Stadium complicated.
All eight of the matches can be streamed without spending a dime on the Bally Dwell app and ballylive.com and the matches can 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 remaining Heritage Collection bracket-style event in Chicago, going 5-0 to assert their third AVP title as a crew. 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 remaining 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 robust at age 44, and Avery Drost. A four-time USA Olympian who took residence 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 change 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 Collection occasion and certified for the League with strong finishes this season of seventh in Huntington Seashore, seventh on the Manhattan Seashore Open and fifth in Chicago.
However that simply scratches the floor of the star energy in Miami. Former LSU geats Kloth and Nuss will symbolize 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) have been automated qualifiers into the League based mostly on their first-place end within the iconic Manhattan Seashore Open. In addition they have been runners-up in Huntington Seashore 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 crew and an Olympian in 2012, and Allen performed a job within the growth of American younger weapons Miles Partain and Andy Benesh, who completed fifth within the Paris Olympics. Lotman teamed often 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 companion up in 2024 and produced two fifths (Huntington Seashore and the MBO) and a seventh (Chicago), which received them the chance for extra paydays within the League.
The Dallas Dream will function 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 gained 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 remaining yr of eligibility on the seashore for Coach Russell Brock’s powerhouse Sandy Tigs. Hailey and Kylie made the reduce for the League with a fifth-place end on Huntington Seashore and ninths at Manhattan Seashore and Chicago.
Pertain and Benesh have constructed appreciable momentum for the reason that Olympics, ending second within the MBO and rolling by way of the Chicago occasion with out dropping a set.
If greatness within the AVP is outlined by success within the Manhattan Seashore Open, the Wimbledon of seashore volleyball, then Trevor Crabb has locked up all-time-great standing. Trevor has gained 9 AVP tournaments, however has 4 plaques on the Manhattan Seashore 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 part of wild-card alternatives 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 symbolize 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 Seashore Open on the eleventh hour two weeks in the past and took fourth, teaming with UCLA four-time All-American Lexy Denaburg. Matches this weekend towards the Canadian silver medalists and TKN this weekend ought to converse volumnes in regards to the new mothers’ readiness.
Right here’s how the schedule will break down on the Arduous Rock Tennis Heart (all occasions Jap):
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 Seashore 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 Seashore 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.
