AVP League: Smash — Budinger-Evans, Urango-Rodriguez — break into playoffs

Photographer Rick Atwood was in Frisco 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 San Diego Smash cashed their long-shot ticket, vaulting from last place in the standings to a spot in the playoffs in the final two AVP League weekends.

The Smash had lurked at 2-6, seemingly out of sight and out of mind, in the League cellar for four consecutive weeks, sitting idle for the middle month of the series’ eight-week schedule.

But when they finally hit the sand again, the Smash’s duos of Chase Budinger–Miles Evans (4-4) and Geena Urango-Toni Rodriguez (4-4), produced dynamic results. They won three of their four matches during Week 7 in Anaheim, California, elevating them into the postseason hunt.

In the League’s eighth and final stop at the Comerica Center in Frisco, Texas, over the weekend, the Smash put together another 3-1 effort to finish 8-8. That earned them the fourth and final spot in the semifinals, which will be contested on Saturday night (Nov. 9) at the Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California.

How fitting that on the weekend the thoroughbred Breeders’ Cup extravaganza was raced “where the surf meets the turf” at historic Del Mar, the beach-volleyball team representing nearby San Diego closed like champions down the stretch.

The other team to qualify for the semifinals, the Dallas Dream, would have rewarded the chalk players. With Miles Partain and Andy Benesh putting the finishing touches on an undefeated regular season, the Dream won three of their four matches to land the No. 2 seed at 11-5. The Austin Aces (7-9) and LA Launch (5-11) saw their postseason hopes dashed, both going 1-3.

The surging Smash gained solid footing on Saturday night when savvy veteran Urango and the bubbly Rodriguez clawed to a 12-15, 15-11, 16-14 victory over Hailey Harward and Kylie Deberg of the Dream.

Consecutive aces by the 6-foot-1 Rodriquez got the Smash off to a roaring 4-1 start in the second set. After the Dream duo knotted the count at 7, the Smash scored “real” points on two more service winners by Toni and an attack error by Deberg. The Dream were unable to cut onto that four-point cushion.

Geena and Toni built a 10-5 advantage in the tiebreaker, but up-and-comers Harward and Deberg would not go down quietly, eventually drawing even at 14 when Hailey dug Urango and scored in transition down the line with a shot that clipped the tape. However, Harward sent a float serve just long and Geena closed the show with an ace down the middle.

“Toni is the yin to my yang, so it’s an awesome balance,” Urango said, as the ever-smiling Rodriguez chimed in, “I love it!”

Budinger and Evans fell victim to Partain and Benesh 15-12, 16-14 in a match pitting 2024 USA Olympians. The second set was nip-and-tuck throughout with a kill on a second-ball option by Chase tying it at 14. Evans then crashed into the net, incurring a violation, in trying to handle a tight third ball, and Budinger waffled a spike long on the option for the final nail in the coffin. The 6-foot-9 Benesh rang up a monster hitting percentage of .833 (10-for-12 with zero errors) as the victory by the Dream locked in a playoff berth.

The encouraging word for the Smash was that the Aces and Launch also had split their matches in the opening session’s other game, leaving all three alive for the last semifinal spot heading into Sunday’s action.

Urango and Rodriguez stepped up again against the Launch’s Betsi Flint and Julia Scoles (3-5) pulling out a second three-set victory (15-13, 12-15, 15-11), and eliminating the LA team from playoff contention. They broke open 12-8 separation in the tiebreaker on a tape-snake ace by Rodriguez and Toni’s rejection of Scoles’ option attempt, then scored the match-winner on a darting hybrid-float service winner by Rodriguez that Julia could touch with only one arm.

Rodriquez recorded four blocks, three digs and hit .625 (11-for-16 against one error), plus three more aces ran her weekend count to eight. Toni’s average of 1.05 aces per set was tops among the League’s 16 women.

“When I’m on the court with Geena, she makes me feel that I can be my best,” Rodriguez said. “The more we play together, the better we get, and it’s just frickin’ awesome.”

With the finish line in sight, Chase and Miles needed just 25 minutes to put a 15-11, 15-8 beatdown on the Launch’s Tim Bomgren and Troy Field (2-6), who had rebounded from a disastrous first set to trump Billy Allen and (a hobbling) Paul Lotman of the Aces in three (7-15, 15-13, 15-9) the night before. Former NBA player Budinger rose to the occasion in the must-win situation with 11 kills on 14 errorless attacks (.786), one block and three digs.

“We play at the highest level, played in the Olympics, so pressure is nothing new to us,” Chase said. “We just had to trust our game plan, trust what our coaches have given us and play as comfortably as we can.”

Now all the Smash needed was a little help from the Dream, since the Aces had to win both matches to snare the fourth playoff berth. The most tiebreaker points the Aces could score in a split was four, which would put them even with the Smash in that category, but the Smash owned the advantage in the second tiebreaker (head-to-head result) thanks to going 2-for-2 in Week 7.

USA Olympians Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss (4-4) had gotten the job done for the Aces on Saturday, taking down the Launch’s Flint and Scoles 12-15, 15-12, 15-12 behind Taryn’s four blocks and Kristen’s 17 digs. But feisty youngsters Harward and Deberg (3-5) of the Dream, who had extended both sets to overtime in a loss to TKN (as they are called) on Week 2, rose to a higher level this time.

Hailey and Kylie stunned Kloth and Nuss 17-15, 12-15, 15-7, prevailing in a protracted opening set and putting the hammer down early in the tiebreaker against one of the elite teams in the world. The active 6-foot-4 Deberg notched three of her seven blocks in the third set, while the fleet Harward picked up eight of her 18 digs. Kloth hit .226 and Nuss .200 for the match.

Smash in, Aces folded.

Pertain and Benesh (8-0) then clinched the No. 2 seed in the semifinals with a workmanlike 15-11, 15-13 victory over Allen and Lotman (3-5), limiting the veterans to a combined .148 attack percentage (11-for-27 against seven errors). Andy was dandy again, going 11-for-14 with one error (.714) with two aces.

The only unbeaten League pair in either gender, Partain and Benesh were pushed to three sets once, by the Miami Mayhem’s Trevor Crabb and Theo Brunner. They will meet again in the semifinals.

“There are great teams in this league,” Benesh said. “We’re playing the best teams in America, so to go undefeated all season has been really special. We played well every match, but it also takes luck, and I think we got lucky at certain times.”

The Saturday night gathering at the 4,000-seat Comerica Center (perfectly sized for volleyball) looked to be the largest of any of the 16 regular-season League sessions, filling most of the sections visible on the Bally Live app’s stream on the sideline and both end zones. Sunday afternoon’s crowd was noticeably smaller, following the trend seen during these League weekends.

The four matches from Saturday and the first two played on Sunday during Week 8 in Frisco (a Dallas-Fort Worth suburb) are archived on the AVP’s free YouTube channel. The last two matches on Sunday aired exclusively on CBS Sports Network via tape delay and will be posted to YouTube 10 days after the live telecast, in accordance with the AVP’s media-rights agreement with CBS Sports.

Here are the pairings for the AVP League Championship on Nov. 8 and 9 outdoors in the 7,259-seat tennis stadium at the Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California:

Saturday 

Semifinals 

No. 2 seed Dallas Dream (11-5; Miles Partain and Andy Benesh, 8-0; Hailey Harward and Kylie Deberg, 3-5) vs. No. 3 seed Miami Mayhem (10-6, Trevor Crabb and Theo Brunner, 6-2; April Ross and Alex Klineman, 4-4).

No. 1 seed New York Nitro (12-6, Taylor Crabb and Taylor Sander, 6-2; Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes, 6-2) vs. No. 4 seed San Diego Smash (8-8; Chase Budinger and Miles Evans, 4-4; Geena Urango and Toni Rodriguez, 4-4).

Sunday

Third-place match: Semifinal losers. Championship: Semifinal winners.

Roll shots

— The AVP will use a novel “Golden Set” as the tiebreaker in all of the postseason games. If teams split their two matches, regardless of whether they end in two sets or three, a Golden Set of 15 points (win by two with no cap) involving the men’s and women’s pairs from both squads will determine the winner. The higher seeded team will have the option of choosing whether the men or the women will start the set. When one scores eight points, the teams will switch pairs as well as sides (with the net height adjusted) and those duos will finish the set.

— Olympic gold medalist Alix Klineman on Monday announced her retirement from competitive volleyball in a poignant video on Instagram. Alix will join partner April Ross in making the AVP League Championship her swan song. Klineman, 34, said that she was retiring to devote more time to her family, which includes son Theo, born in June.

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