AVP 2025: Austin Tournament

Dear Readers~

    Welcome to stop #7 of the 2025 AVP (Association of Volleyball Professionals) League. This stop took place at the H-E-B Center in the Texan state capital of Austin. Like previous league stops, this one lasted for two days on August 1st and 2nd. The men's and women's will be combined for this blog. There were a total of 8 games between the two days with two for each gender on each day. Let's now move on to the difference between the League and previous AVP seasons (or the recent Manhattan Beach Open for example).

    In previous seasons, the AVP stops usually took three days, encompassing the whole weekend, and including finals and semifinals. This season only the stop in Manhattan Beach, California did this as well as the only double elimination tournament of the season (as of the publishing of this). The very first stop of the season that took place in Huntington Beach, California and did include finals and semifinals lasted two days but was a single elimination tournament. A big difference in the two is that the league scoring is first to 15 instead of 21, unless they both reach 15 since a two-point lead is required. It used to be that the first two sets go to 21 while the third set goes to 15 (if a third set is needed). The League also goes to 8 cities, which makes a total of 8 teams (one for each city) along with an extra city to host the finals. These finals were held in Chicago on Labor Day weekend. Each host city only hosts four of the eight teams and only has two games for ech gender each day and means that only eight games are played between the two genders unlike in previous years where a duo could play anywhere from two to nine different games in the span of the three day weekend (if it's double elimination, like Manhattan Beach for example). Let's take a look at who's playing in stop #7 here in Austin, Texas.

    Up first are the women's teams. The four teams include the New York Nitro, LA Launch, Miami Mayhem, and Ausitn Aces. The first day had New York against Los Angeles while Maimi played Austin. The first game had Corinne Quiggle and Megan Rice for New York against Terese Cannon and Megan Kraft for Los Angeles. The first set ended 15-11 while the second set ended 15-9, both in favor of Cannon and Kraft. The second game had Molly Shaw and Kelly Cheng for Miami against Taryn Brasher and Kristen Nuss for Austin. The first set ended 15-7 while the second set ended 15-12, both in favor of Shaw and Cheng.

    The second day for the women had Miami against New York while Austin played against Los Angeles. First up was Molly and Kelly for Miami taking on Corinne and Megan for New York. The first set ended 15-12 in favor of Miami while the second ended 17-15 in favor of New York and causing a third set. The third set ended at 16-14 in favor of Miami and giving them the 2-1 victory over New York. The final women's game of the weekend was between Taryn and Kristen of Austin against Terese and Megan of Los Angeles. The first and second sets both ended at 15-9 and both in favor of Taryn and Kristen, giving them a 2-0 win over Terese and Megan.

    Up next we have the men's side. The first game was Miami against Austin followed by New York against Los Angeles. For Austin you have Avery Drost and Wyatt Harrison while Miami had James Shaw and Chaim Schalk. The first set ended 15-7, in favor of Miami, while the second set ended 15-12, also in favor of Miami, and giving James and Chaim a 2-0 win over Avery and Wyatt. The next game had Taylor Crabb and Taylor Sander for New York playing against Hagen Smith and Logan Webber for New York. The first set ended 15-7 while the second ended 15-12, both in favor of New York and giving them the 2-0 victory for the day.

    Now for the second day of play. This day had Austin against Los Angeles and Miami against New York. The first set ended 15-13 in favor of Austin while the second set ended 17-15 in favor of Los Angeles. The third set ended 15-13 but this time in favor of Los Angeles and giving them the 2-1 victory. The final men's game was also the final game of the weekend. The first set ended at 15-11 in favor of Miami while the second set ended at 16-14 in favor of New York. The third set ended at 15-10 in favor of New York and giving them the 2-1 victory.

Here is the schedule for the weekend in Austin

Here is where all of the teams stand after the games in Austin

    This concludes both men's and women's games in Austin, Texas. Up next is another Texas city, Dallas. This stop was held at the Comerica Center for week #8 of the League season. The four teams that were at this stop include the Brooklyn Blaze, Miami Mayhem, Los Angeles Launch, and of course, the Dallas Dream if any of those teams interest you. If there's a certain sport or team that you'd like me to cover, let me know as well and as always, until next time, Miller out

~J. Miller