AVP League: Week 4 preview as Austin Aces, Palm Beach Passion, LA Launch, Brooklyn Blaze battle
In the hands-down marquee matchup of Week 4 in the AVP League, Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss of the Austin Aces renew their red-hot rivalry with Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson, representing the Palm Beach Passion.
The League rolls to the Lone Star State for its fourth beach-volleyball rodeo, playing indoors for a second consecutive week, at the 8,700-seat H-E-B Center at Cedar Park in suburban Austin, Texas, on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon.
Doubleheaders in each session will feature the Aces, Passion, LA Launch and Brooklyn Blaze, the teams that were idle last weekend. The Blaze (1-3) and Launch (1-3) have not played since the opening week in Los Angeles. The Aces (2-2) and Passion (1-3) saw action during the second go-round in South Florida.
A 4-0 weekend by any of the teams would put it in the conversation for one of the four postseason spots and the bonus prize money that goes with it. All eight squads will have played four games (with men’s and women’s matches in each) at the halfway point in the League after the event in Texas. The New York Nitro are in first place at 7-1, the Miami Mayhem and Dallas Dream are 5-3 and the San Diego Smash are 2-6.
The games will be streamed live on the free Bally Live app and ballylive.com, and the matches will be archived on the AVP’s free YouTube channel shortly after they are completed.
The highly anticipating showdown between Kloth and Nuss (2-0 in the League) and Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson (1-1) on Saturday night features two of the world’s premier women’s pairs. U.S. Olympians and the Manhattan Beach Open champions, TKN (as they are known) are 8-6 all-time against Mel and Brandie, the silver medalists in the Paris Olympics. But the wildly popular Canadian pair has won the last three meetings, including the AVP Huntington Beach final, the Round of 16 in the Olympics and the AVP Chicago title match.
Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson will face another difficult test on Sunday afternoon against the Launch’s Betsi Flint and Julia Scoles (1-1), the MBO runners-up. Mel and Brandie are 5-0 all-time against Flint-Scoles, but three of the victories went to a tie-breaking set. Betsi and Julia are matched against up-and-comers Megan Kraft (the NCAA beach player of the year in 2023 and ‘24) and Terese Cannon of the Blaze on Saturday, while TKN plays Kraft-Cannon (0-2) on Sunday.
Over on the men’s side, the only pair with a League “W” is the Blaze’s Cody Caldwell and Seain Cook, who swept the U.S. Olympians Chase Budinger and Miles Evans of the Smash after losing to the Nitro’s Taylor Crabb and Taylor Sander.
This is a weekend to make hay in cattle country for what looks to be an evenly matched group. Looking to get into the victory column are the Passion’s Phil Dalhausser and Avery Drost, the Aces’ Paul Lotman and Billy Allen and the Launch’s Tim Bomgren and Troy Field. It does not seem outside the realm of possibility that all of the men’s duos might go 1-1.
Cook told us that he learned a valuable lesson about being ready to play 15-point “speed” sets during the League’s debut.
“We played really well against Chase and Miles,” said Cook, Scotland’s gift to the AVP. “But after we (were bounced by the Taylors), I went to Cody and apologized for not bringing the amount of energy necessary for these 15-point sets. It should be go-go-go, but in our first match, I was a little hesitant. Then on Sunday, it was right from the rip, full blast. Big difference.”
Cook agreed that this was “Moving Weekend,” to steal a phrase from golf, for the Blaze, as well as the other three teams.
“It’s certainly a huge weekend for us,” he said. “We’re looking at our matchups and see an opportunity. Yeah, our matches might be winnable, but everybody’s going to see them that way. It makes it more of a pressure weekend. The other (League dates) it’s like, ‘Oh, we’ll see what we can make happen. If we can steal a win, that would be amazing.’ But not this weekend.”
One of the most entertaining players in the AVP, Cook broke down the upcoming matches against Bomgren-Field and Allen-Lotman.
“We lost to Tim and Troy in the semifinals at Waupaca (a Contenders Series event), and Cody and I have never played against Paul and Billy. But they’re serving really well, ripping a lot of aces. So both of these matches are going to be battles.”
Here are the lineups at the H-E-B Center at Cedar Park for the fourth of eight regular-season AVP League weekends:
Saturday
Brooklyn Blaze (1-3) vs. LA Launch (1-3)
Women (6 p.m. Central): Megan Kraft and Terese Cannon (Blaze, 0-2) vs. Betsi Flint and Julia Scoles (Launch, 1-1).
Men (7 p.m.): Cody Caldwell and Seain Cook (Blaze, 1-1) vs. Tim Bomgren and Troy Field (Launch, 0-2).
Austin Aces (2-2) vs. Palm Beach Passion (1-1)
Men (8 p.m.): Paul Lotman and Billy Allen (Aces, 0-2) vs. Phil Dalhausser and Avery Drost (Passion, 0-2).
Women (9 p.m.): Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss (Aces, 2-0) vs. Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson (Passion, 1-1).
Sunday
LA Launch vs. Palm Beach Passion
Women (1 p.m. Central): Flint-Scoles (Launch) vs. Humana-Paredes-Wilkerson (Passion).
Men (2 p.m.): Bomgren-Field (Launch) vs. Dalhausser-Drost (Passion).
Brooklyn Blaze vs. Austin Aces
Men (3 p.m.): Caldwell-Cook (Blaze) vs. Lotman-Field (Aces).
Women (4 p.m.): Kraft-Cannon (Blaze) vs. Kloth-Nuss (Aces).
The results from each match in the series will count 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. Each team will play four regular-season games. The first criterion for advancing to the playoffs is team winning percentage.
Roll shots
— The largest number of cumulative views logged for a video of any AVP League match on the YouTube Channel is 22,000. The pair that has been most popular among the YouTube channel viewers is Taylor Crabb and Taylor Sander of the Nitro. Their four full-match videos have recorded 17,000, 17,000 (in Week 3), 18,000 and the aforementioned 22,000 (in Week 1)
— In contrast, the AVP was seen by hundreds of thousands on national TV during the 2024 Heritage Series. The Manhattan Beach Open finals on the broadcast Ion channel had a total-average viewership of 299,000 and the title matches from the Chicago Heritage Series event were watched by an average of 215,000 on the over-the-air CW Network.
— Through three League weekends, two-set matches have ranged between 26 and 40 minutes, and three-setters between 44 and 56. Two-thirds of the matches (16 to 8) have finished in two sets. All sets in the League are played to 15 points (win by two).
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