All posts in News

Aussie beach volley returns

By Hans Stolfus

Australia is better than a packet of Dark Chocolate Tim Tams draped in vanilla bean ice cream. Haven’t been? Go. It’s that simple.

The beaches squeak, the countryside stuns, and the serenity lasts forever — just ask Darryl Kerrigan. As far as sports go, footie takes the specky, rugby makes my neck hurt, but is obviously tougher than Gridiron (American Football), cricket makes total sense 100 percent of the time, lawn bowling reminds me of curling in white pants on the surface of the sun, and beach volley is slowly but surely making a valiant return to the summer limelight thanks to some sick French Sports Coupes and French-sounding shampoos. Food and drink? Beers are inordinately expensive, so they must be that much better, snags (not shrimp) are thrown on the barbie, and marinated kangaroo tastes suspiciously delicious – I don’t care how cuddly and iconic they are. What more can you ask for, right? How ‘bout the funniest, happiest, most charming bunch of boardshort wearing, 6:00 a.m. spiking, Snapper Rock surfing, and mid-day pint drinking mates on the planet? Mates who aren’t so caught up in getting ahead of the pack that they forget who they left behind. Mates who understand that it’s not about the surf or the volley, it’s about the people you are fortunate enough to surf and volley with. Continue Reading →

Photo Gallery

If you happened to miss the AVP Championships event photostream posted on Facebook, here they are again via Flickr. From the dinner party, to the pre-party, to the championship event, to the trophy presentation…just click on men’s inaugural champion Matt Prosser and the Hilton Waterfront Hotel below to view…

AVP Championships: Year 1

By Hans Stolfus

If you haven’t had the chance to catch the Universal Sports press release, or the tournament results posted at avpchampionships.com, the winners of the inaugural AVP Championships event on Saturday were Matt Olson and Matt Prosser for the men, and Lauren Fendrick and Brooke Niles-Hanson for the women.

Olson/Prosser upset the top seeds, Sean Scott and John Hyden, 23-25, 27-25, 15-13, in arguably the best match of the tournament to take home the title and earn the right to some rather coveted real estate on the brand new AVP Cup trophy. Fendrick/Niles-Hanson upheld their No. 1 seed with a three-set victory over Jenny Kropp and Whitney Pavlik, 21-18, 18-21, 15-12, to do the same.

A tradition was born Saturday in Huntington Beach in front of the Waterfront Beach Resort, a Hilton Hotel. Winners of the AVP Championships event will have their names engraved on the AVP Cup Trophy for eternity, and much like the Stanley Cup in NHL Hockey, each player will have possession of the trophy (splitting time between partners) until the next AVP Championships event is held. (When a new winner is crowned, the previous year’s winner will pass on the trophy accordingly.) Continue Reading →

A New Start

Universal-Sports-Logo[1]

Special to UniversalSports.com

A ton of uncertainty surrounded the AVP this summer — right up until the last game of its only event of the year.

After the tour abruptly canceled the rest of its season last August, many wondered what would become of the strongest beach volleyball circuit the U.S. has ever known. In short, the AVP scaled back dramatically and opted for only one season-ending event in 2011, held Saturday in Huntington Beach, Calif.

Following Lauren Fendrick and Brooke Hanson’s win over Jenny Kropp and Whitney Pavlik in the women’s final (21-18, 18-21, 15-12), first-time partners Matt Prosser and Matt Olson shocked the tournament favorites, John Hyden and Sean Scott, in the men’s final (23-25, 27-25, 15-13).

Continue Reading —>

Live streaming coverage

By AVP Staff

The AVP is excited to announce that beach volleyball fans around the country who are unable to make their way to Huntington Beach for the tournament Saturday will be able to catch all of the action via live stream provided by United Webcast.

This event exists solely for the fans and we wanted to make sure all fans of the sport are able to check it out, regardless of IP address. Fire up your computer at 10:00 a.m. PST and make your way over to the AVPChampionships.com website, where there will be a link taking you directly to the webcast page. Sit back and feast on the action provided by some of the best players in the game and melodious tunes served up by DJ J Roche.

The beach will be rocking with center court volleyball action, a VIP beer garden hosted by the Shades Restaurant and Bar, and our one of a kind sponsor row. But if you cannot make it live and in person to “Surf City USA”, be sure to log-on and check out the live stream brought to you by United Webcast @ UnitedWebcast.com

This is Beach Volleyball for the fans. Nationwide.

Lineup change…

By Monica Lee

What a difference a weekend can make.

As strictly stated in our event qualification criteria, if players competed in at least eight domestic or eight international tournaments as a TEAM — with that TEAM’s best eight finishes counting towards the AVP Cup Standings — the top two TEAMS per gender (both domestically AND internationally) at the end of the season would earn invitations to the inaugural AVP Championships event.

Force majeure not withstanding.

Due to extenuating circumstances, however, Sean Rosenthal, Matt Fuerbringer and John Mayer will no longer be able to compete this weekend, and we are forced to go back on the very rules and regulations we originally created. Their replacements will be Ty Loomis, Stein Metzger and Matt Olson, respectively.

By changing the date of the event from October 1 to October 22, athletes who could have originally competed on Oct 1 are no longer able to participate on the revised weekend; Rosenthal injured his knee in Morocco, Mayer hurt himself during a practice earlier in the month, and Fuerbringer has an obligation at Stanford University this Saturday he unfortunately could not get out of. Continue Reading →