The second go-round of the innovative AVP League will feature the four teams that did not play on the opening weekend in Los Angeles. It’s a star-studded group replete with numerous American marquee players and the biggest names from Canada.
Wildly popular Canadians Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wikerson, representing the Palm Beach Passion, will ride a wave of momentum into South Florida for Week 2 of the League, which will be played on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon at the Hard Rock Tennis Center in Miami Gardens, Florida, a venue that is part of the Miami Dolphins’ Hard Rock Stadium complex.
All eight of the matches will be streamed for free on the Bally Live app and ballylive.com and the matches will be archived on the AVP’s free YouTube channel.
Mel and Brandie followed their run to a silver in the Paris Olympics by winning the AVP’s third and final Heritage Series bracket-style tournament in Chicago, going 5-0 to claim their third AVP title as a team. Along the way, they took down U.S. Olympians Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes, then pulled out an air-tight three-set victory in the final over American Olympians Tayrn Kloth and Kristen Nuss (15-13 in the tiebreaker).
Teaming with the Canadians on the Passion are Phil Dalhausser, the AVP’s elder statesman who is going strong at age 44, and Avery Drost. A four-time USA Olympian who took home the gold with Todd Rogers in the 2008 Beijing Games, the 6-foot-9 Dalhausser still is thin and very much remains a beast on the sand.
Even though pro-beach volleyball has become a secondary focus for Phil, who no longer competes internationally, he and Drost should be discounted in any match. They reached the semifinals of the 2023 Chicago Gold Series event and qualified for the League with solid finishes this season of seventh in Huntington Beach, seventh at the Manhattan Beach Open and fifth in Chicago.
But that just scratches the surface of the star power in Miami. Former LSU geats Kloth and Nuss will represent the Austin Aces, who also number the veteran pair of 42-year-old Billy Allen and 38-year-old Paul Lotman.
TKN (as they are known to their legion of fans) were automatic qualifiers into the League based on their first-place finish in the iconic Manhattan Beach Open. They also were runners-up in Huntington Beach and Chicago, falling in three in both to Mel and Brandie, and took gold medals on the…
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