“Slinging the Sand” is a column by Chris Nigro about professional beach volleyball.
Beach volleyball is a sport that, unfortunately, gets very little media coverage. If you’re like most people, the only time you watch beach volleyball is during the Olympics.
Personally, I think that’s a shame. There is so much exciting beach volleyball being played outside of the Olympics. And I wanna talk about it.
My favorite tour is the AVP (Association of Volleyball Professionals) tour. This is the American league and features a ton of USC alumni.
We are in the back half of the season now and so much has happened. To recap every tournament and every game would be too much, so I’ll try to hit the highlights.
Let’s start with the Pro Series Hermosa Beach Open. On the women’s side, five of the eight remaining players in the semifinals went to USC.
The all-USC team of Julia Scoles and Geena Urango were a No. 7 seed and surprised everyone by making the semifinals. They fell to Betsi Flint and USC alum Kelly Cheng (formerly Kelly Claes).
At the end of the day, the USC-UCLA pair of Terese Cannon and Sarah Sponcil came out on top, as Sponcil beat her former teammate Cheng in the finals.
On the men’s side, none of the semifinalists were USC alumni. The former Trojan with the best chance to make it was Tri Bourne, the No.1 seed, along with his partner Trevor Crabb. They lost to the No. 16 seed in the first round and then couldn’t make it out of the losers bracket, losing to the eventual champions Theo Brunner and Chaim Schalk.
Side note: If you’re wondering what “Pro Series” means, basically there are three tiers of AVP volleyball events. These tiers are the Tour Series, Pro Series and Gold Series, with the Gold Series being the highest level (and the largest payouts).
That brings us to the Gold Series Atlanta Open. The team that came out on top was the No. 7 seed, Scoles and Urango. This was the first AVP championship for both of them.
They had to do it the hard way, through the losers bracket, after losing to USC alum Sara Hughes and Kelly Kolinske. But the all-Trojan duo got revenge later on, beating Hughes and Kolinske in the semifinals before taking down No. 1 seed Cannon and Sponcil.
One of the most interesting and fun matchups on the men’s side was between the Crabb brothers. Is it because I thoroughly enjoy the moniker “Crabb boil” that people have given the matchup? I mean, yes, but the volleyball was also incredible.
Taylor Crabb has been playing well with former Olympic indoor player Taylor Sander. The pair hasn’t won an AVP championship yet, but man they’ve been close. Sander has, and I mean this when I say it, truly insane bounce. If you want to watch someone try to hit a volleyball into the Earth’s core, look no further. This duo is electric.
As for their opponents, Trevor Crabb and Bourne, they’ve won a bunch recently. They won the Pro Series Fort Lauderdale Open, the Gold Series Manhattan Beach Open (the largest tournament of the year) and the Gold Series Chicago Open. They are now ranked as the No. 1 team on the AVP tour. You see why everyone loves the Crabb boil now, right?
That’s a lot of information and names, but in case you want more names at the top of beach volleyball, I’ll oblige. Here are all the other teams that have won an AVP Gold/Pro Series tournaments this year:
Men’s: Andy Benesh (USC alum)/Phil Dalhausser (Pro Series Austin Open), Dalhausser/Casey Patterson (Pro Series New Orleans Open), Miles Partain/Paul Lotman (Gold Series Atlanta Open)
Women’s: Taryn Kloth/Kristen Nuss (Pro Series Austin Open and Gold Series Chicago Open), all-USC pair Tina Graudina/Hailey Harward (Pro Series Fort Lauderdale), Hughes (USC alum)/Kolinske (Gold Series Manhattan Beach Open)
The upcoming tournament will be between the best of the best and the culmination of the Gold Series. The Phoenix Championships will feature the top six teams on each of the men’s and women’s sides. The tensions are going to run high and there will be some extremely high-level volleyball. You can watch it on AVP’s Youtube livestream on Sept. 23 and 24.
Although the Phoenix Championships is arguably the biggest AVP tournament of the year, there are still two more AVP tournaments left in the calendar year. And I haven’t even mentioned the upcoming FIVB tournaments. There will still be plenty more beach volleyball to talk about.
Finally, I want to leave you with a (hopefully) recurring segment of the play of the “week.” This week, it’s Patterson with an acrobatic dig and Dalhausser with the finish at the Chicago open.
.@caseypatt goes AIRBORNE for the dig! The veterans Dalhausser/Patterson have made their way to the Semifinals, coming up soon on Youtube. #AVP2022 #NoHoldingBack pic.twitter.com/zFQSfMn5Kw
— AVP (@avpbeach) September 4, 2022
“Slinging the Sand” runs every other Friday.