The AVP season got started in Huntington Beach, California and the NCAA beach volleyball championships were held in Gulf Shores, Alabama last weekend. Even though this is a blog about Olympic qualification and these events don’t get anyone closer to Tokyo, it was a huge weekend in America and there is a lot worth looking at. Speaking of Olympic qualification, the first 45 spots for each gender in the all important World Championships were revealed yesterday, too.

NCAA Beach Volleyball Championships – UCLA do it again

Let’s start with the college girls. If you think that college beach volleyball is at a lower level than the World Tour, I’ve got a few names for you. Sarah Sponcil played on the second court for the University of California at Los Angeles. Yep, she’s the one that won a silver at an FIVB four-star in The Hague this January and a bronze at the Qinzhou three-star in 2018. She’s also on the list to play at the World Championships in Hamburg. Not bad for the second court. She’s second court because UCLA’s first court belongs to Canadian twin sisters, Megan and Nicole McNamara who are also going to be making a World Championships debut in June. Another future FIVB star that is a current NCAA player is The University of Southern California’s Tina Graudina who will be representing Latvia at the World Championships. In fact, the season ending tournament featured 8 teams and 80 beach volleyball players, almost all of whom have the potential to be big stars on the beach in the not very distant future.

UCLA wins the first set on all three courts of the second flight and needs just one more set win to clinch the National Championship!#NCAABeachVB pic.twitter.com/3rsC98RnFP — NCAA Volleyball (@NCAAVolleyball) May 5, 2019 UCLA cheering on their teammates just moments before clinching national title. The team atmosphere is unique and very special at NCAA events.

The tournament itself was thrilling due to an opening round upset where tiny Stetson University shocked number one seeded USC. American college teams play each other in a format called duels where five best-of-three matches are happening simultaneously. Keeping that format in mind, a victory over mighty USC is even more impressive because three pairs had to pull off huge upsets on the same day. Fortunately for USC, this was a double elimination tournament. They had to take a much longer route to the championship match, but eventually they made it back to play cross town rivals UCLA. The shorter path (3 duels to USC’s 5) was a benefit to UCLA as they were able to win three matches before USC managed to win one. So for the second year in a row, UCLA are the national champions of beach volleyball.

AVP Tour Opens in Huntington Beach

Teams with tons of FIVB gold medals, Olympic experience and even Olympic gold started off the season in the party-like atmosphere of Huntington Beach. The winning teams were World Championship bound Alix Klineman and April Ross on the women’s side and Taylor Crabb and Jake Gibb for the men. The women’s final was a dramatic three setter against Canadian’s Melissa Humana-Paredes and Sarah Pavan which was full of momentum switches and match points for both teams. The victory for Klineman and Ross continues a dominant run to end last year’s AVP season. They’ll be hoping to carry that success onto the international stage and earn an Olympic bid.

The first Championship Sunday of the season is underway! Catch all of the action from today’s Semifinals and Finals, live on Amazon @PrimeVideo at https://t.co/xPwPfurTAQ. #BeachMode pic.twitter.com/GdElkrrTNv — The AVP (@avpbeach) May 5, 2019 Tri Bourne getting the better of Gibb and Taylor in the first match, but he and Trevor couldn’t manage two wins over the top Americans in one weekend.

In the men’s final, Olympic veteran Casey Patterson and ex-NBA player, Chase Budinger had a very impressive tournament, but couldn’t overcome Gibb and Crabb. Gibb and Patterson were teammates at the Rio Olympics, but now have different partners. A team that did overcome Gibb and Crabb, were Taylor’s older brother Trevor Crabb and his partner Tri Bourne. In the third round the teams (both bound for the World Championships in June) met and it was Bourne and the older Crabb that came out on top. The next day, however, after battling through the contenders bracket, Gibb and Taylor got revenge with a semifinal victory.

Olympic gold medalists Phil Dalhausser and Ricardo Santos (not playing together) were probably disappointed with their AVP opener. Dalhausser and Lucena took 5th while Rosenthal and Santos took 9th. Ricardo showed he’s still got the energy to compete with the kids in one of the most entertaining rally’s of the tournament.

World Championship field is taking shape

The World Championship lineups were announced late yesterday. The men’s and women’s are almost complete. 45 of the 48 teams are confirmed with three wildcard entries yet to be announced. The team that I’m missing on the men’s side is Italians Enrico Rossi and Adrian Carambula. They’ve been outstanding this year but are outside of the top 25 and didn’t win a European bid. On the women’s side, Laura Ludwig is not on the list, but everyone expects her to claim one of the wildcard spots and compete in front of her German fans.