Thar she blows! AVP New Orleans survives (but not the Wilson ball) a stormy Saturday

KENNER, Louisiana — Really, if you haven’t watched the video above, please, go back and give it a look.

It was taken by Carolyn Kraft, a law student at Vanderbilt University who is here with her sister, Deahna Kraft, who played in AVP New Orleans with Kaitlyn Malaney. There were a handful of videos of that Wilson ball flying away Saturday, but it was Kraft’s that got the explosion at the end, when the ill-fated blow-up sphere met its demise with a power line.

More on that later, but first a look at Sunday’s schedule after a Saturday delayed five hours by the wicked storm that blew through this area with a vengeance. Some reports had it blasting 60 mph winds and it wasn’t a storm that just passed through. It stayed for quite a few minutes, and when it left, Coconut Beach was beat up. The area near stadium court looked like this:

Play, started at noon, was halted just before 1 p.m. and didn’t resume until 6 p.m. When it re-started, the AVP had no streaming capabilities and chose not to use the stadium court although the venue was more or less back to normal by late afternoon.

So when the last ball hit the wet, hard-packed sand at about 11:15 p.m. — a well-fought, three-victory by Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes over Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss — the AVP prepared for playing again less than nine hours later.

And here’s that schedule, starting with the elimination brackets:

At 8 a.m., Brian Miller and DJ Klasnic play Evan Cory and Logan Webber, while Travis Mewhirter and Avery Drost take on Cody Caldwell and Chase Frishman. Tim Brewster and Kyle Friend and Paul Lotman and Silila Tucker await the winners.

At 9 a.m. Olympian Sarah Sponcil and Terese Cannon play Julia Scoles and Betsi Flint and Toni Rodriguez and Savvy Simo play Teegan Van Gunst and Kim Hildreth. Olympian Sarah Pavan and Emily Stockman and Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss await.

Olympians Tri Bourne and Chaim Schalk and Billy Allen and Troy Field advanced into Sunday semifinals on the men’s side.

Three of the four players in the women’s semifinals are Olympians. Cheng (playing with Hughes) and the Canadians, Brandie Wilkerson and Melissa Humana-Paredes.

Of note on the men’s side:

— Cory, who is from the next town over, Metairie, is playing on Sunday in an AVP for the first time.

— Mewhirter, the VolleyballMag.com beach editor, has played on…