The Austin Aces laid a solid foundation, but plenty of heavy lifting needs to be done before a berth in the AVP League playoffs can be secured.
Two games over .500 at 5-3, the Aces project as one of the teams that will join the New York Nitro (10-2) and Miami Mayhem (10-6) in the single-elimination League semifinals. The Nitro will complete their four-game regular season in Week 7 as the League remains indoors in Southern California at the 18,000-seat Honda Center in Anaheim.
The marquee game this weekend comes on Sunday afternoon when the league-leading Nitro and fourth-place Aces square off, highlighted by a battle between the Nitro’s Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes and the Aces’ Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss, the pairs who represented the United States in the Paris Olympics. Cheng and Hughes lead the all-time series 5-3 but lost the only meeting in 2024, falling in three sets (15-13 in the tiebreaker) in the AVP Chicago Heritage Series semifinals.
From a standings perspective, the match is more of a must-win for Manhattan Beach Open winners Kloth and Nuss, who come into Week 7 at 3-1, than it is for reigning world champions Cheng and Hughes, who have gone 5-1. A 2-2 record by the Aces likely would keep them firmly in the playoff mix, but a sub-.500 mark might open doors for the three teams with losing records that remain alive.
CBS Sports Network will expand its coverage of the AVP League to four hours on Sunday, airing both games live from 4 pm. to 8 p.m. Eastern.
Kloth and Nuss on Saturday night will face Geena Urango and Toni Rodriguez (1-3) of the San Diego Smash, who have been idle since the League’s third week. The Smash are 2-6, but loom as a postseason X-factor at the bottom of the League standings since – even though it would require a huge uphill climb – their best possible record is 10-6.
The key to a winning weekend for the Aces very well could be their men’s pair of veterans Paul Lotman and Billy Allen, who went 0-2 during Week 2 in Miami then won both of their matches in Austin on the fourth series stop.
Lotman and Allen face tough sledding against USA Olympians Chase Budinger and Miles Evans (1-3) of the Smash and the Nitro’s Taylor Crabb and Taylor Sander, the AVP Huntington Beach winners who come in at 5-1.
“It’s been both hard and fun to watch without playing (the last two weeks). This League is so new that I’m not even sure who to root…
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