AVP San Diego 2025: Women's Tournament

 Dear Readers~


    Welcome to the third city of the 2025 AVP (Association of Volleyball Professionals) season and the second stop of the League. This city is San Diego, California. This 2 day event took place at San Diego's Viejas Arena, home to San Diego State University. The arena is home to SDSU's basketball teams but this weekend it was home to professional beach volleyball. Because the event only lasted two days (June 6th and 7th), there was no technical finals or semifinals. It was made up of four pairs from each gender (out of the 8 pairs each gender has this season). Today we'll talk about the women's pairs and their four games. Since I'll be talking about the women's teams today, next week I'll look into the men's teams, so stay tuned for that coming out soon.

    The way the league varies from previous seasons and the earlier stop in Huntington Beach, California, is that the league is made up of 8 teams for each gender, each representing a city for the season. There are 8 cities the league will play in, one for each team, followed by the league championships Labor Day weekend in Chicago. The four teams that competed in San Diego include the San Diego Smash, Dallas Dream, LA Launch, and Austin Aces. In previous seasons, the first two sets of each game ended at 21 while the third ended at 15, all three with a lead of two points or more in order for the set to end. The league is different because each set ends at 15, not 21, but the rule of a two point lead or more to win is still in effect. Unlike Huntington Beach or previous seasons, there's no bracket for the players to compete in, since there's only four teams for each gender at the 8 stops. Instead, you and your partner for the weekend each play a game on the first day and another game on the second day, meaning you only play two games the whole weekend instead of the 5, 6, or even 9 you may have played in previous seasons. The tournament in Manhattan Beach, California in August is the only tournament of the season that will use the previous double elimination brackets and is also the only one that will last three days, unlike the two days of every other stop this season, including the Huntington Beach tournament back in May. As I learn more about this League and their rules, I'll share with each new blog. Now that we've explained part of the differences between this season and previous ones, let's get into the women's games that took place in San Diego, California.

    With each gender having four teams, four games were played. On the first day there was the LA Launch taking on the Dallas Dream to start off the weekend as the first game. Terese Cannon and Megan Kraft represented LA while Hailey Harward and Kylie Deberg represented Dallas. This game ended 15-11 in the first set and 15-8 in the second set, both in favor of the LA Launch. The second game of the first day for the women was between the San Diego Smash and the Austin Aces. Toni Rogriguez and Geena Urango represented San Diego while Taryn (Kloth) Brasher and Kristen Nuss represented Austin. This game ended 11-10 in the first set and was cut short due to the injury of Rodriguez.

    The second day started with the game between the Dallas Dream against the Austin Aces. The first set ended 15-13 while the second set ended 15-10, both in favor of the Austin Aces. The last women's game in San Diego had the LA Launch taking on the San Diego Smash. Due to Rodriguez being injured the previous night, Urango was paired with Abby Van Winkle (who played Beach volleyball for UCLA if that name sounds familiar) for the game. The first set ended 15-9 in favor of LA, 23-21 in favor of San Diego, and was the only women's game of the weekend to go three sets. The third set ended 15-11 in favor of LA.



After the weekend, only the LA Launch won all four of their matches between the two genders


    This concludes the women's side of stop #2 of the 2025 AVP League season in San Diego, California. The next stop is in Miami, Florida but next week's blog will be the men's side of the weekend so stay tuned for that coming out next. If there's a certain sport or match up you'd like me to cover, let me know and until next time, Miller out


~J. Miller

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