AVP Huntington Beach 2025: Men's Tournament

 Dear Readers~

    Welcome to the men's tournament of the 2025 AVP (Association of Volleyball Professionals) Huntington Beach Open that took place in Huntington Beach, California on May 10th and 11th. In the last blog I covered the women's tournament with the pairs of Brandi Wilkerson and Melissa Humana-Paredes along with Kelly Cheng and Molly Shaw. For the men's tournament, I will cover the pairs of Cerutti Alison and Alvaro Morais Filho along with the other pair of Billy Allen and Taylor Crabb.

    Let's learn a little bit more about how the AVP works and the rules on and off the sand. So, in previous years, the AVP has had tournaments (also called events, stops, or opens, I will refer to them as any of these) in various cities around the country. Every year I go to the one held in Manhattan Beach, California (about 5 miles south of LAX) that happens every year in the middle of August. The one in Manhattan Beach is the only tournament this year that will be 3 days while the rest of the stops will be two days (including this one in Huntigton Bech), so stay tuned for that special blog later in the year. In previous years, all stops have been three days and a double elimination bracket but things changed this season with the new 'AVP League' the AVP has started this season. Once I understand how it works, I'll be able to explain it more later in the season. In the women's tournament I did last week I explained the difference between the NCAA and AVP tournaments if you understand college but not the pros. For the pros, you have one pair on one side of the net against a different pair on the other side of the net playing until victory. The game is either two sets to 21 or two sets to 21 and a third set to 15 if each team won a set to 21. If both teams get to 20, they keep playing that set because you need a 2 point lead or more to win that set, this rule goes for the third set to 15 as well (I once saw a set end at 37-35 when it should've stopped at 15 because they were so close but one team needed that two point lead). With this being a once you lose, you go home weekend, let's see how these two teams did in Huntington Beach, California.

    Let's start off with the pair of Alison and Filho. This pair is from Brazil with Alison (his last name is Cerutti but he goes by Alison instead) winning the gold medal in Rio in 2016 and as of the writing of this, he is the most recent gold medalist I've met (I've currently met 8) and looks a lot like my writing friend Travis Mewhirter (who coaches beach at Florida State) and I know this  because I've gotten the two mixed up on more than one occasion. Filho may not have a gold medal but it's teamwork that helps lead to victory. Now let's see how they did in the tournament. their first game was against Chaim Schalk and James Shaw (Shaw is the husband to Molly Shaw, who I covered in the women's tournament topic last week if you were curious). The first set went 21-16 in favor of Alison and Filho while the second set ended 29-27 in favor of Shaw and Schalk (don't forget that you need a lead of two points or more to end a set) and causing a third set. The third set ended 15-13 in favor of Alison and Filho, moving them on to the next game while knocking their opponents out of the tournament. Their next game was against Hagen Smith and Logan Webber. The first set ended 22-20 in favor of Webber and Smith while the second set ended 22-20 as well but this time in favor of Alison and Filho, and causing a third set. The third set ended 15-13 in favor of Smith and Webber, knocking Alison and Filho out of the tournament just one win away from the semifinals.

The pair giving a high give between plays

    Now let's see how Billy Allen and Taylor Crabb did for their tournament. Their first game was against Johnathan Pickett and Sam Schachter. Both sets ended 21-17 and both in favor of Allen and Crabb. Their next game was against Avery Drost and Wyatt Harrison. The first set ended 22-20, in favor of Allen and Crabb, while the second set ended 21-17, also in favor of Allen and Crabb.  Their next game was against Chase Budinger and Miles Evans. Since this is one of the two semifinal games, this will be covered next week as I cover the semifinals and finals of both genders from this first AVP stop of the 2025 season.

You have Allen on the left and Crabb on the right waiting for their next serve

    This concludes the men's tournament of the 2025 AVP Huntington Beach Open so stay tuned for next week when I cover the semifinals and finals of both the men's and women's brackets to see who wins the first AVP stop of the 2025 season. If there's a sport or certain AVP duo you want covered, let me know and until next time, Miller out

~J. Miller