Manhattan Beach Open: Crabb and Brunner, Kloth and Nuss take home championships
For the entire weekend at the AVP’s Manhattan Beach Open, loud pop and house music blared over the loudspeakers. As pairs dueled on the sand, it felt like a party was going on all around the court.
But on championship Sunday, the music was turned down during play and the focus turned to the competition.
Theo Brunner and Trevor Crabb emerged as champions in the men’s tournament. Olympians Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss won the women’s final.
Crabb and Brunner were unbeaten during the weekend, as they topped Paris Olympians Andy Benesh and Miles Partain, 21-18, 21-18, in the final. Crabb and Brunner lost only one set over three days.
In the women’s event, Kloth and Nuss beat the defending champions, Julia Scoles and Betsi Flint, in the final match. Kloth and Nuss dropped the first set, but went on to win, 18-21, 21-17, 15-9.
Both winning teams will now have a guaranteed spot in the AVP League, which is set to begin on Sept. 14.
Crabb wins fourth Manhattan Beach Open in five years while partner Brunner wins the event for the first time
The championship matchup was a form of redemption for Crabb and Brunner.
Their opponents Benesh and Partain played in the Paris Olympics earlier this month and represented the U.S. along with Chase Budinger and Miles Evans. However, Crabb and Brunner’s win proved to themselves they belonged on the world’s biggest stage.
Trevor Crabb and Theo Brunner are the men’s champions of the Manhattan Beach Open.
Names will be engraved into the pier a year from now. pic.twitter.com/lxt8W15cNn
— Matthew Ho (@mho_kj) August 18, 2024
“This was a little bit of redemption for us,” Crabb said. “We should have been there. We came in the best and we’re just trying to prove it.”
Crabb has now won four of the last five Manhattan Beach Opens. His only second-place finish came last season when his brother Taylor Crabb beat him in the finals.
But Trevor Crabb got redemption against his brother and Taylor Sander in the semifinals earlier on Sunday, winning 21-18, 19-21, 15-11.
In the finals, Trevor Crabb and Brunner held off Benesh and Partain with a more traditional pass, set and hit style of offense while Benesh and Partain ran an option scheme where sometimes the player who receives the second touch can choose between hitting and setting their partner.
“The old school up and down, pass, set and hit works too,” Trevor Crabb said.
According to Trevor Crabb, his team’s biggest strength is their serve-receive game.
While Trevor Crabb was able to dig multiple big hits from Benesh and Partain, Brunner’s presence at the net sent balls flying back the other way.
Trevor Crabb has won the four of the last five Manhattan Beach Opens. Talks about what it means to help get his partner, Theo Brunner, onto the pier pic.twitter.com/8asLzKFoh5
— Matthew Ho (@mho_kj) August 18, 2024
For Brunner, it was his first victory at Manhattan Beach.
“He deserves it more than anyone,” Trevor Crabb said. “He’s been one of the best players in the U.S. for a while. He deserves to be up there with everyone.”
Brunner is a decorated player of his own. He’s been named AVP’s Best Block in 2013, 2014, 2022 and 2023. He has an AVP Championship from 2013 as well as success on the international level.
“Our style really complements each other,” Trevor Crabb said. “We’re both one of the better side-out players. I think we can beat anybody.”
Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss defeat defending Manhattan Beach Open champs
Kloth and Nuss have had an eventful few weeks. After wrapping up at the Olympics, they returned to the U.S. and, a week later, were the No. 1 seed in the Manhattan Beach Open.
Kloth and Nuss overcame the 2023 event champions Julia Scoles and Betsi Flint despite dropping the first set.
“We’ve been in situations where we’ve been down before,” Nuss said. “It wasn’t necessarily familiar, but we’ve been there.”
Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss defeat reigning Manhattan Beach Open champions Julia Scoles and Betsi Flint. pic.twitter.com/uHMT4nCxac
— Matthew Ho (@mho_kj) August 18, 2024
Now Kloth and Nuss will get their names put onto the pier for the first time in their careers since graduating from LSU together in 2021.
“We had a couple balls go off block a couple of times in the first set, so we knew going into the second and third it was going to come our way eventually,” Nuss said.
Nuss had multiple sequences in the game where she laid out for the ball, only managing to stick out one arm to keep the ball in the air. On one scrappy play in the third set, a hit came over the net fast and Nuss leaned her shoulder towards the ball.
The ball bounced off her shoulder and landed in the back left corner of Scoles and Flint’s side of the net.
That point gave Nuss and Kloth a 12-7 advantage.
Earlier in the final set, Kloth stuffed Scoles and Flint at the net twice on the same play to extend the lead to 4-1.
“We make it challenging for teams to score so we just fall back on that and know we can rattle off lots of points throughout the game,” Nuss said.
After a dominating third set, Nuss jumped into Kloth’s arms to celebrate and then they sprayed bottles of champagne on the beach, wrapping up an extraordinary couple off weeks of beach volleyball competition.
“We’re still working on the processing part,” Kloth said. “Now, it’s just more.”