Pro Beach
October 22, 2024
Photographer Jim Wolf was in Oceanside and a gallery of his best shots follow. Click on any photo to view full size and be sure to give him credit if you share.
The Miami Mayhem put the finishing touches on a 10-6 regular season in the AVP League by going 3-1 over the weekend, meaning that fans will be treated to more beach volleyball from all-time great April Ross.
The Mayhem are locked into one of four spots in the bracket-style League semifinals after Ross and partner Alix Klineman split their matches during Week 6 at the Frontwave Arena, while teammates Trevor Crabb and Theo Brunner went 2-0. The League’s return to Southern California drew perhaps the best crowds to date in the series to the spanking new venue in Oceanside, which was perfectly sized for the event.
April and Alix, the gold medalists in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, got off to a rough start on Saturday night, absorbing a 15-13, 15-8 thumping from Betsi Flint and Julia Scoles of the LA Launch. Both sets ended when Klineman served balls into the net.
The first was tied at 12 before Scoles got a kill on a knuckle-poke and then rejected Klineman on a tight set. Flint and Scoles notched seven consecutive points early in the second set, including two aces from Betsi’s deceptive off-one-foot hybrid float serve, to build an insurmountable advantage. Julia hit .818 for the match (10-for-11 against a single error) and recorded three blocks and a dig.
“We talk about (being) snipers from behind the line, especially at the beginning, not so much at the end,” said Flint, who dialed up three service winners and made seven digs.
Veterans Ross and Klineman shrugged off that setback, rebounding with an 11-15, 16-14, 15-11 triumph on Sunday afternoon over Megan Kraft and Terese Cannon of the Brooklyn Blaze, which evened their League record at 4-4. In the tiebreaker, Ross picked up seven kills on 11 errorless swings and four digs, while the less-experienced Blaze pair combined to hit .278 (8-for-18 with three errors).
“The final kill down the line was a relief because we had a big lead and I just wanted to close it out,” said Ross, 42, who will retire when the AVP League concludes. “But I was feeling, like, ‘OK, if we win this, we have a good chance of getting in the (League) Championship.’ So that was also a relief, that we would have another weekend together.”
April expounded on her emotions as her stellar career nears its end.
“Going into the match (on Sunday), I was a little emotional because, right before, Alix was talking about how it could possibly be our last match ever, and I was just thinking about that,” said Ross, who joined the AVP in 2006 and has earned Olympic gold (2021), silver (2012 with Jen Kessy) and bronze (2016 with Kerri Walsh Jennings) medals.
“It made me a little melancholy to start, and we started a little slow. I’m pretty present when I play, so I was just concerned with winning each individual point. It was just kind of business as usual. I’m stoked that we won and gave our team a better chance to make it to the Championship.”
The Mayhem’s seasoned duo of Crabb and Brunner had all but assured the team would be in the playoffs with a 13-15, 15-12, 15-11 victory on Saturday over the Launch’s Tim Bomgren and Troy Field, who dropped their fourth three-setter.
The opening set closed on a highlight-reel moment when Bomgren used a two-hand overhand “tomahawk” technique to set Field from deep in the court, and Troy hammered a kill down the line. A five-point early surge, punctuated by a stuff block from Theo and an ace by Trevor, opened 8-2 separation for the Mayhem duo in the second. A late push by Tim and Troy was blunted when Bomgren served wide on set point.
Brunner rejected Field on a tight set to put his pair up 11-9 in the tiebreaker. Theo got another stuff block (on Bomgren) and bounced a spike to make the count 14-10, and Trevor’s hammer down the line sealed the deal. Crabb filled the stat sheet with 18 kills on 29 attempts against one error (.586), 12 digs, two aces and a block. Brunner had six blocks, three in the third set.
The men of Mayhem didn’t have to work nearly as hard on Sunday afternoon, putting a 15-12, 15-6 beatdown on the Blaze’s Cody Caldwell and Seain Cook, who hit a combined .129 (12-for-31 with eight errors). The 6-foot-7 Brunner loomed large again at the net with four blocks and went 13-for-18 with one error (.667). The elder Crabb brother and Brunner were 6-2 over the regular season, drawing accolades from Ross for their professionalism.
“We feel really lucky to be paired with Trevor and Theo,” April said. “They’re both very mature and professional and accountable. I feel confident that they’re going to take it seriously, do their job and if we can play well, we have a shot (in the postseason). I know Theo mentioned it in his last Instagram post that he wanted to do well for my farewell tour, to keep it rolling. I thought that was a nice gesture but it’s their deal, too. It’s not just about me. But hopefully that’s an added motivation for them as well.”
The Mayhem and the first-place New York Nitro (10-2) are the only squads in the eight-team AVP League to clinch playoff berths. In the other significant developments over the weekend, the Dallas Dream (8-4) took three of their four matches to elevate their postseason chances, and their dynamic men’s duo of USA Olympians Miles Partain and Andy Benesh (6-0) remained the only undefeated tandem in the League in either gender.
Their women’s pair, talented youngsters Hailey Harward and Kylie Deberg, split their matches (both three-setters) to improve to 2-4 overall. Hailey and Kylie pulled a stunning 15-13, 8-15, 15-12 upset against Flint and Scoles (3-3) on Sunday. Set point in the first came when Scoles served into the net and match point scored when Flint’s serve sailed long. The 6-foot-4 Deberg was 8-for-8 hitting in the tiebreaker. Kylie’s jump-serve ace, one of her four service winners overall, created a 14-10 cushion.
The night before, Harward and Deberg came out on the losing end of a three-setter (12-15, 15-12, 15-11) against fellow up-and-comers Kraft and Cannon. A four-point run culminated by Cannon’s rejection of Harward gave the Blaze pair an 11-7 advantage in the third and Kraft’s pokey over the block in transition closed the show.
Meanwhile, Pertain and Benesh posted a 15-10, 15-13 triumph over Caldwell and Cook on Saturday night that earned oohs and ahhs for crowd-pleasing sizzle. Miles amassed 10 digs while swinging at .667 efficiency (15-for-18 with three errors).
The net presence of the 6-foot-9 Benesh played a key role in the AVP Chicago champions’ 15-13, 16-14 victory on Sunday afternoon over Bomgren and Field (1-5). Andy ended the first set with a rejection of Bomgren and a stuff block on Field. Benesh scored the match-winner by blocking Bomgren. That followed a kill by Andy made possible by an improbable diving bump set from under the met by the uber-athletic Partain.
In the postmatch interview, Benesh tried to pass the credit to Partain, but Miles would have none of that, pointing that his tall teammate had “a bunch of blocks at crucial times. That’s why we won both sets.”
Andy’s four blocks and Partain’s 11 digs helped limit the Launch pair to .184 hitting, including .000 by Bromgren (5-for-19 against five errors).
Field addressed the difficulties presented by Partain and Benesh, and their fast-paced attack.
“Watching (Partain) play, he is just attacking high hands and, kind of, relentlessly abusing blockers,” Troy said. “Andy Benesh is blocking great. Their system of the jump set and the option (is) such a deadly force. And then they have the X-factor, and that’s Partain, and Partain’s brain. He’s an absolute gem of a human being and he is an insane volleyball player. As a competitor it sucks to lose against them, but as a fan it’s always fun to watch.”
While the Mayhem are in the League semifinals, and the Dream are all but in, the Launch (4-8) likely will need to win all of their remaining four matches to have any hope of advancing to the playoffs. The Blaze at 5-11 (Caldwell-Cook, 2-6; Cannon-Kraft, 3-5) have been mathematically eliminated.
The first sixth matches of Week 6 from Oceanside are archived on the AVP’s free YouTube channel. The last two were aired exclusively on CBS Sports Network.
The Nitro and Palm Beach Passion will complete their regular seasons during Week 7 as the AVP League stays in Southern California. Joining them at the Honda Center (the home of the NHL’s Ducks) in Anaheim are the Austin Aces and San Diego Smash, both of whom have four games remaining. The Smash have been idle since Week 3 in San Diego. Doubleheaders at the 18,000-seat indoor venue are scheduled on Oct. 26 and 27.
Here are the lineups for the seventh of eight regular-season AVP League weekends:
Saturday
New York Nitro (10-2; Taylor Crabb and Taylor Sander, 5-1; Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes, 5-1) vs. Palm Beach Passion (4-8; Phil Dalhausser and Avery Drost, 1-5; Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson, 3-3).
Austin Aces (5-3; Paul Lotman and Billy Allen, 2-2; Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss, 3-1) vs. San Diego Smash (2-6; Chase Budinger and Miles Evans, 1-3; Geena Urango and Toni Rodriguez (1-3).
Sunday
Nitro vs. Aces and Passion vs. Smash.
The results from each match in the 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. The first criterion for advancing to the playoffs is team winning percentage.
