CHICAGO — Tempting as it may be to think so, Tri Bourne cannot actually plan or script the way a tournament will pan out. Yet if he could, AVP Chicago is exactly the way he’d write it.
“If I can plan out a tournament or a final for the fans, for the sport, it would be us winning 16-18 in the third against those guys,” Bourne said in the wake of his and Trevor Crabb’s 21-18, 19-21, 18-16 win over Taylor Crabb and Taylor Sander. “That’s the best. That’s what it’s all about.”
How good was it?
Even Taylor Crabb, the sensational defender on the losing end of the match, agreed: “You can’t ask for a better final than that. The total volleyball is some of the best volleyball we played.”
A fitting end to what is, by a long stretch, the most thrilling tournament of the year. More than half of the men’s matches — 15 of 29 — went the full three sets, including the final, which made an awfully convincing case for the AVP Match of the Year.
“That was a great final. It’s been a little while since a tight, close final on the men’s side,” Trevor Crabb said. “It’s always good for everyone when that happens. It adds that extra feeling when you win a close match.
“It brings energy to the game and it’s great for the game when both sides are doing that. Those are two of the best volleyball players not only in the U.S. but the world. It’s always a battle going against them, especially when it’s your brother.”
Indeed, there is a reason matches with the Crabb brothers are routinely the most viewed of any tournament. Even in Atlanta, their ninth-place elimination round match logged the highest viewership of the tournament, attracting 14,000 more viewers than the finals. Two weeks later, their semifinal in Manhattan Beach, another three-set white-knuckler, finished the weekend as the highest-viewed of the tournament.
“When you’re playing guys like that, there’s no right answer,” Bourne said. “You just have to trust your instincts and go have fun because those guys are two of the best players in the world and I’m just stoked we got to entertain all of our fans out there.”
It isn’t just the fact that the Crabbs are brothers, or that Sander is arguably the most talented rookie the AVP has seen since it began issuing the Rookie of the Year award, or…
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