The courageous new world of the AVP League will additional break from seashore volleyball custom with the introduction of a novel “Golden Set” tiebreaker within the playoffs.
The Golden Set will kick in if any of the 4 video games of the AVP League Championship this weekend wind up with the boys’s and ladies’s pairs splitting their matches. The tantalizing new ingredient to the 15-point (win by two with no cap) tiebreaker is that each genders will affect the result.
The upper seeded group, as decided by match data over eight video games of the League common season, will obtain the selection of whether or not to start out the Golden Set with the boys or the ladies. After one pair reaches eight factors, the opposite pairs will end the set.
Such strategic variables determine to make for compelling TV and spark debate amongst followers, to not point out that the winners and losers can be determined by the efforts of all the groups’ gamers on the sand. Isn’t that the way it needs to be?
How probably is it {that a} Golden Set would possibly happen throughout the two semifinals on Saturday night time or the third-place recreation or finals on Sunday afternoon?
Take into account that the 4 groups left standing within the single-elimination playoffs at Dignity Well being Sports activities Park in Carson, California, noticed 46.8% of their mixed 32 AVP League video games end in splits, 17 going 2-for-2 and 15 1-and-1. Given these odds, followers would possibly need to familiarize themselves with the brand new process.
Throughout the common season, the League used a system awarding tiebreaker factors in every match on a scale of three for a two-set victory, two for successful in three units and one for a loss in a deciding third set. After eight weekends of competitors, the 4 playoff groups had been determined by the primary customary, successful proportion, and no subsequent tiebreakers had been wanted.
On Saturday night time, the top-seeded New York Nitro (12-4) will face the surging San Diego Smash (8-8), who earned their spot because the No. 4 seed within the semifinals by going 6-2 over the League’s final two weeks.
Additionally, the second-seeded Dallas Dream (11-5) will sq. off towards the Miami Mayhem (10-6), the No. 3 seed. The winners will battle for the AVP League title on Sunday afternoon (nationally televised on CBS Sports activities Community) after the losers play within the third-place recreation.
The Nitro seemingly sit within the catbird’s seat due to the stability they get pleasure from between their two pairs. AVP Huntington Seashore Heritage Collection champions Taylor Crabb and Taylor Sander on the boys’s facet and reigning girls’s world champions Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes every went 6-2 throughout the common season. The Nitro had been the one group to see each pairs wind up with a better-than-.500 report. USA Olympians Cheng and Hughes hit a mixed .528, greatest within the League among the many eight feminine duos, and Kelly’s .550 assault proportion was No. 1 individually.
“It feels actually good going into the playoffs because the No. 1 seed, however we couldn’t have executed it with out our males’s (pair) doing very well, too, so general it’s only a nice group effort,” Hughes advised Volleyball Journal. “However I don’t essentially assume that being the 1 seed is a large benefit coming into the (postseason). We’re going to go up towards actually good opponents.”
The Smash’s latest kind validates Hughes’ assertion. USA Olympians Chase Budinger and Miles Evans (4-4) are battle-tested. incomes their spot within the Paris Video games by means of clutch performances within the late phases of the qualifying course of. Chase identified final weekend that he and Evans “play on the highest stage, performed within the Olympics, so strain is nothing new to us.”
Artful veteran Geena Urango and bubbly Toni Rodriquez (4-4) had been lights-out over the past two League weekends, taking down USA Olympians Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss of the Austin Aces in a sweep and pulling out three-set victories over the Dream’s Hailey Harward and Kylie Deberg and the LA Launch’s Betsi Flint and Julia Scoles. Their solely setback got here in a three-set heartbreaker (16-14 within the tiebreaker) towards Olympic silver medalists Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson of the Palm Seashore Ardour.
Urango and Rodriguez have put great strain on their opponents from the serving line. The athletic 6-foot-1 Rodriguez is No. 1 among the many League’s girls in aces with a mean of 1.05 per set. Cheng-Hughes swept the Smash pair in businesslike trend 15-12, 15-11 in Week 3 of the League schedule, however Hughes remained cautious.
“Geena and Toni are enjoying superb and we at all times have a troublesome time enjoying towards them,” Sara stated. “Their serving has been unbelievable and we’re going to have to organize for that. They’re going to attempt to get us out of system.
“Toni is a very good ‘delay’ blocker on the internet. It’s a must to watch out with a blocker who’s so sneaky. Then you will have Geena. She’s a veteran, we have now a lot respect for her, and he or she’s enjoying nice protection. We’re going to should play our greatest to have the ability to beat them.
“Once you take a look at the boys’s facet, our group goes to should beat Chase and Miles, the Olympians,” Hughes added. “It’s not a simple path to the ultimate.”
The Taylors wanted three units (15-11 within the tiebreaker) to prime Budinger and Evans once they met in Week 3. Former NBA participant Budinger seemingly has ratcheted up his recreation on the proper time. Chase is the highest proportion hitter, at .623, among the many League’s males, however within the loss to the Nitro was held to a more-mortal .526 (12-for-19 towards two errors).
In the meantime, the semifinal between the Dream and the Mayhem options two compelling storylines: 1) Can the Dream’s Miles Partain and Andy Benesh lengthen their undefeated report? And a couple of) Will this be the final hurrah for Mayhem superstars April Ross and Alix Klineman, each of whom have introduced that they may retire?
USA Olympians Pertain and Benesh (8-0) are the one group in both gender with no loss and that looms massive, notably if the X-factor of the Golden Set comes into play. The AVP Chicago Heritage Collection champions received seven of their League matches in two units, however the lone exception is telling.
The Mayhem’s Trevor Crabb and Theo Brunner (6-2), winners of the distinguished Manhattan Seashore Open, took the primary set towards Partain and Benesh earlier than dropping 13-15, 15-9, 15-10 again in Week 3. Benesh was a beast with six kills on seven errorless assaults and two aces within the tiebreaker. However Trevor and Theo (the League’s No. 1 blocker among the many males with 1.74 rejections per set) swept Miles and Andy within the MBO title match, and positively sport the credentials to finish that unbeaten streak.
Flipping to the ladies’s facet, 2021 Olympic gold medalists Ross and Klineman (4-4) possess the big-match expertise and have ample motivation to shut out their storied careers as winners. Throughout the festivities of the championship weekend in Southern California, the AVP will acknowledge their retirements.
However the fast-rising Dream duo of Harward and Deberg (3-5) poses a considerable risk. Hailey has changed into a digging machine, standing No. 1 among the many girls with 5.1 per set, and the 6-foot-4 Deberg has turn into extra dominant on the internet because the league has progressed. The kicker is that Harward and Deberg upset April and Alix in a three-set marathon (15-12, 12-16, 18-16) in Week 3, and swept the comebacking new mothers within the AVP Huntington Seashore bracket-style occasion again in Might. The younger Dreamers additionally surprised Kloth and Nuss final weekend, so it’s tough to charge this match as something however a toss-up.
The weekend streaming/TV schedule will see the semifinals on Saturday night time and the third-place recreation on Sunday afternoon streamed stay on the free Bally Reside app and ballylive.com. These six matches can be archived on the AVP’s free YouTube channel shortly after completion.
The AVP League remaining on Sunday will air solely on the CBSSN cable channel from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Japanese. A replay can be proven at 11 a.m. Japanese. These two matches from Sunday will go up on the AVP’s YouTube channel 10 days after the stay telecast, in accordance with the AVP’s media-rights settlement with CBS Sports activities.
The climate outlook for Saturday and Sunday is superb with minimal threats of rain underneath partly cloudy skies. Temperatures on Saturday night time are forecast to be within the 60s with nearly no wind. Sunday afternoon ought to have temperatures within the low 70s and wind blowing 8 mph from the southwest.
Listed below are the pairings for the AVP League Championship within the out of doors 7,259-seat tennis stadium on the Dignity Well being Sports activities Park in Carson, California:
Saturday’s semifinals
No. 2 seed Dallas Dream (11-5 within the common season) vs. No. 3 seed Miami Miami Mayhem (10-6)
Girls (6 p.m. Pacific): Hailey Harward and Kylie Deberg (Dream, 3-5) vs. April Ross and Alex Klineman (Mayhem, 4-4).
Males (7 p.m.): Miles Partain and Andy Benesh (Dream, 8-0) vs. Trevor Crabb and Theo Brunner (Mayhem, 6-2).
No. 1 seed New York Nitro (12-4) vs. No. 4 seed San Diego Smash (8-8)
Males (8 p.m.): Taylor Crabb and Taylor Sander (Nitro, 6-2) vs. Chase Budinger and Miles Evans (Smash, 4-4).
Girls (9 p.m.): Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes (Nitro, 6-2) vs. Geena Urango and Toni Rodriguez (Smash, 2-4).
Sunday
Third-place recreation (1 p.m. Pacific): Semifinal losers.
Championship recreation (3 p.m.): Semifinal winners.
NOTE: All video games throughout the AVP League Championship are topic to a “Golden Set” tiebreaker if pairs break up their matches, whether or not the matches finish in two or three units. The tiebreaking standards used throughout the common season won’t be in impact.
