HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. — After two windy and moist and positively wild, in all of the greatest methods, AVP tournaments to start the season, skilled seaside volleyball is coming dwelling to Southern California this weekend. The AVP is again in Huntington Beach for the first time since 2019, until you depend final fall’s Tour Series, a watered-down occasion that was held just a few miles south of the precise Huntington Beach Pier.
There is positively nothing watered down about this occasion. It’s again at the Pier, certainly one of the greatest areas on Tour, and the subject is past full. This weekend will function doubtlessly the thickest subject of the season, with no Volleyball World conflicts pulling athletes away. Quite the reverse has occurred, in reality: International gamers both with visas or in the course of of accomplishing them, have made an already-full subject even fuller.
It has made for an occasion rife with storylines.
“Bemvindo” Alison, and welcome to the AVP, Sam Schachter
Yes, you learn it right that the No. 4 seed in Thursday’s qualifier is Alison Cerutti, he of three Olympic appearances, two Olympic medals — silver in 2012, gold in 2016 — and 28 gold medals on the FIVB. If he have been the 4 seed in the essential draw, it may appear low. But the qualifier? He is likely to be the most adorned man in an AVP qualifier (Larissa’s bona fides nonetheless outrank him, and she or he’s nonetheless in the qualifier; extra on her under). No wild card was given — form of shocking, form of not — to Alison, so he and Eric Beranek, again after a prolonged absence as a consequence of damage and sickness, might want to win three matches on Thursday to advance into the essential draw.
Such is the path required by my worldwide associate, Sam Schachter, and me. Schachter, Canada’s top defender, is making his AVP debut this weekend. His solely skilled appearances in the United States have gone effectively sufficient, with 4 wins in 5 makes an attempt on the National Volleyball League with Josh Binstock.
No strain.
AVP champions enhance qualifier subject
Aside from the cadre of worldwide gamers leaping into the qualifier, there is no such thing as a scarcity of American expertise buried in there as effectively. Jen Keddy and Carly Kan received an AVP as not too long ago as December, but right here we’re, six months later, and each are in the qualifier — Keddy with Kaitlyn Malaney, Kan with Jess Gaffney. Down the entry record is Kim DiCello, a principally retired mother who’s enjoying alongside former Long Beach State standout Nicci Reinking. If you depend Tour Series wins as AVP wins, then Larissa and Lili Maestrini, the top seed in the girls’s qualifier, are one other pair of AVP champs. If you don’t embrace Tour Series, it’s nonetheless related that the Brazilians made the finals in Chicago as not too long ago as 2021, and received three Tour Series in 2022.
Between Larissa and Alison, the two have six Olympic appearances, three Olympic medals, greater than $3 million in prize cash, 90 worldwide wins, and two cemented spots awaiting in the Hall of Fame.
On the males’s facet, Ed Ratledge is the lone AVP champion sentenced to the gauntlet of the qualifier, blocking for JM Plummer of their first occasion collectively.
The return of the College Mafia
Two weeks in the past, USC, in the midst of what justifiably would have thought-about a rebuilding 12 months, received a third straight NCAA Championship. And with that, all of the highly-trained, finely-tuned NCAA athletes grew to become free to compete on the AVP as soon as extra. The result’s, as all the time, a messy, messy qualifier. Buried as the 30 seed is Lexy Denaburg, UCLA’s top blocker, and veteran Maria Clara Salgado. It’s a brutal first spherical draw for Katie Horton and Brook Bauer, who completed fifth in the season-opening occasion in Miami and are, by all accounts, an elite group. All 4 of these gamers may seemingly play on a Sunday this season, but they’ll meet in the first spherical of the qualifier.
Molly Turner will alas get her associate, Maddie Anderson, again after a 25-12 season on court docket one for Florida State. The two received a silver medal at the Dubai Challenge final fall and will additionally very effectively make a Sunday this season. Stanford’s Xolani Hodel and Charlie Ekstrom have additionally returned to the AVP. Hodel has been picked up by Allie Wheeler, whereas Ekstrom is enjoying alongside Madison Shields, USC’s court docket 2 standout who was improbable in the garnet and gold.
There are many others, a lot of them, however to record all of them can be to cowl almost half the qualifier.
Will Avery Drost win his first AVP?
As far as the essential draw goes, certainly one of the most intriguing storylines I’ll be following is Avery Drost, who has obtained the promotion of his profession in getting picked up by Phil Dalhausser. Drost has defended efficiently earlier than. He completed third in AVP New York in 2016 defending for Bill Kolinske and took a seventh behind my puny block in New Orleans just a few weeks in the past. The final time Dalhausser and Drost partnered up, they received the USA Volleyball King of the Beach occasion in 2020, the place Dalhausser, after profitable his pool, chosen Drost for the semifinals and finals. So they’ve that going for them. (I really feel obliged to incorporate the indisputable fact that my spouse, Delaney, received the girls’s facet with Kelly Cheng).
If ever there’s a time for Drost to return dwelling with a long-awaited AVP title, this season with Dalhausser is that point.
Click right here to see the AVP qualifier brackets and essential attracts.
