CHICAGO — To assure the most direct path to an AVP Gold Series title during a sizzling and dead-calm Saturday on the sand at Oak Street Beach, the men’s contenders needed to quickly take care of business.
The teams on that side of the AVP Gold Series Chicago Open draw moving forward in their only winners-bracket matches accomplished that goal, providing them with a significant leg up with straight shots into the Olympic-crossover semifinals on Sunday, when temperatures are forecast to be even hotter, likely reaching 90 degrees by 3 p.m.
The women’s draw, on the flip side, was a vastly different story. Read on, too, for Sunday’s TV/streaming info.
The top-seeded men’s pair of 21-year-old lefty sensation Miles Partain and 6-foot-9 Andy Benesh limited their exposure to the high-80s “clear blue sky” heat baking the western shore of Lake Michigan on Saturday to 36 minutes in a statement-making 21-10, 21-16 shellacking of fourth-seeded Chase Budinger and Miles Evans.
The No. 2 seeds, Trevor Crabb and Theo Brunner, had to toil 21 minutes longer to dispatch sixth-seeded Phil Dalhausser and Avery Drost — and needed to dodge a bullet to keep the match from going to three sets.
After a 21-19 opener, Crabb and Brunner staved off potential match-extending set points in the second by Dalhausser and Drost before winning in overtime 25-23. The clincher came when the 6-foot-7 Brunner hovered in the air seemingly forever before swatting down a high roll shot by Drost with two hands.
Brunner detailed his thought process on the timely and emphatic rejection that sent their foes to the contenders bracket, the consequences being that they will have to play one more match in the Sunday sauna on the path to a potential AVP title.
“I was thinking that Avery was trying to hit it hard off of my block,” Brunner said. “So I went up really big and jumped as high as I could. Then for some reason he slowed down. I think he thought that I would dive into the angle. So he did like a short shot. I was already up there and just tapped it right back.”
“Right back in his face,” Crabb pointed out, placing the emphasis on the last word.
Over the two sets, Brunner outblocked the 6-foot-9 Dalhausser 6-3. Drost, who debuted on the AVP in 2009 and is winless in 85 tournaments, was limited to a .324 hitting percentage, with 16 kills on 34…
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