AVP League heads to Miami for matches Saturday and Sunday

The second go-round of the innovative AVP League will feature the four teams that did not play on the opening weekend in Los Angeles. It’s a star-studded group replete with numerous American marquee players and the biggest names from Canada.

Wildly popular Canadians Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wikerson, representing the Palm Beach Passion, will ride a wave of momentum into South Florida for Week 2 of the League, which will be played on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon at the Hard Rock Tennis Center in Miami Gardens, Florida, a venue that is part of the Miami Dolphins’ Hard Rock Stadium complex.

All eight of the matches will be streamed for free on the Bally Live app and ballylive.com and the matches will be archived on the AVP’s free YouTube channel.

Mel and Brandie followed their run to a silver in the Paris Olympics by winning the AVP’s third and final Heritage Series bracket-style tournament in Chicago, going 5-0 to claim their third AVP title as a team. Along the way, they took down U.S. Olympians Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes, then pulled out an air-tight three-set victory in the final over American Olympians Tayrn Kloth and Kristen Nuss (15-13 in the tiebreaker).

Teaming with the Canadians on the Passion are Phil Dalhausser, the AVP’s elder statesman who is going strong at age 44, and Avery Drost. A four-time USA Olympian who took home the gold with Todd Rogers in the 2008 Beijing Games, the 6-foot-9 Dalhausser still is thin and very much remains a beast on the sand.

Even though pro-beach volleyball has become a secondary focus for Phil, who no longer competes internationally, he and Drost should be discounted in any match. They reached the semifinals of the 2023 Chicago Gold Series event and qualified for the League with solid finishes this season of seventh in Huntington Beach, seventh at the Manhattan Beach Open and fifth in Chicago.

But that just scratches the surface of the star power in Miami. Former LSU geats Kloth and Nuss will represent the Austin Aces, who also number the veteran pair of 42-year-old Billy Allen and 38-year-old Paul Lotman.

TKN (as they are known to their legion of fans) were automatic qualifiers into the League based on their first-place finish in the iconic Manhattan Beach Open. They also were runners-up in Huntington Beach and Chicago, falling in three in both to Mel and Brandie, and took gold medals on the 2024 world tour in Elite16 events in Esphino, Portugal, and Gstaad, Switzerland.

Lotman, a former member of the USA men’s indoor national team and an Olympian in 2012, and Allen played a role in the development of American young guns Miles Partain and Andy Benesh, who finished fifth in the Paris Olympics. Lotman teamed frequently with Partain and helped the dynamic lefty win his first AVP title, in Atlanta in 2022, which remains Lotman’s only domestic victory.

Allen, who has toiled on the AVP and various other domestic series since 2004, and Benesh twice advanced to AVP semifinals (the MBO and Chicago) in 2021. But the older guys opted to partner up in 2024 and produced two fifths (Huntington Beach and the MBO) and a seventh (Chicago), which got them the opportunity for more paydays in the League.

The Dallas Dream will feature young 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 talent that flows into the AVP from the collegiate ranks on the women’s side. Harward won NCAA titles in 2021 and ‘22 playing for Coach Dain Blanton’s dominant USC program. Deberg was an indoor star at Missouri and LSU, then played her final year of eligibility on the beach for Coach Russell Brock’s powerhouse Sandy Tigs. Hailey and Kylie made the cut for the League with a fifth-place finish on Huntington Beach and ninths at Manhattan Beach and Chicago.

Pertain and Benesh have built considerable momentum since the Olympics, finishing second in the MBO and rolling through the Chicago event without dropping a set.

If greatness in the AVP is defined by success in the Manhattan Beach Open, the Wimbledon of beach volleyball, then Trevor Crabb has locked up all-time-great status. Trevor has won nine AVP tournaments, but has four plaques on the Manhattan Beach Pier, in 2019 with Reid Priddy, in 2021 and ‘22 with Tri Bourne and this year with 6-foot-7 veteran Theo Brunner. Trevor and Theo will join wild-card selections April Ross and Alix Klineman on the Miami Mayhem.

April and Alix recently had babies and the gold-medal duo from the 2021 Tokyo Olympics have balanced the demands of motherhood and beach volleyball. Ross, 42, ranks among the best ever to represent the USA on the sand, also earning an Olympic silver medal with Jen Kessy in the 2012 London Games and a bronze medal with Kerri Walsh Jennings in Rio in 2016.

April and the 6-foot-5 Klineman, 34, showed signs of getting their sand legs back with a ninth at the MBO. Ross also hopped into the unaffiliated Hermosa Beach Open at the 11th hour two weeks ago and took fourth, teaming with UCLA four-time All-American Lexy Denaburg. Matches against the Canadian silver medalists and TKN this weekend should speak volumnes about the new moms’ readiness.

Here’s how the schedule will break down at the Hard Rock Tennis Center (all times Eastern):

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 Beach Passion: Trevor Crabb-Brunner (Mayhem) vs. Dalhausser-Drost (Passion), 8 p.m.; Ross-Klineman (Mayhem) vs. Humana-Paredes-Wilkerson (Passion), 9 p.m.

Sunday   

Dallas Dream vs. Palm Beach Passion: Harward-Deberg (Dream) vs. Humana-Paredes-Wilkerson (Passion), 1 p.m.; Partain-Benesh (Dream) vs. Dalhausser-Drost (Passion), 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 results from each match in the eight-week series will go toward determining the four qualifiers for the bracket-style championship rounds on Nov. 9 and 10 at the Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California.