Turner-Anderson earn ticket to top-seed party at AVP Huntington Beach

Of the 12 teams remaining in Sunday’s AVP Pro Series Huntington Beach, Molly Turner and Maddie Anderson stick out like, well, a sore seed.

Consider that on the men’s side, the Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 seeds are left.

On the women’s, there are the Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and Turner and Anderson, who are seeded 16th. 

They’ve earned it. They won three times in Thursday’s qualifier to get into Friday’s main draw.

But Friday, they were quickly dispatched in two by top-seeded Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes.

Turner, the 5-foot-8, 26-year-old who was cut from her high school indoors team and turned to beach, played at Grand Canyon. The 6-foot-1 Anderson, only 21, just finished her redshirt-junior season playing on court 1 at Florida State. They had their work cut out for them.

First it’s worth noting this from March 21, when Travis Mewhirter wrote our piece about the players to watch this AVP season. Here’s what he said about Maddie Anderson:

If I had to put all my chips in one basket this season, I’d be backing up the truck and betting every last penny on Maddie Anderson. In three years — including the COVID-shortened 2020 season — she’s 85-21 at Florida State. In three professional events last summer with Molly Turner, she won a gold in a Futures out of the qualifier, qualified for the Dubai Challenge, then won silver in the subsequent Challenge in Dubai. When she graduates from Florida State, she’ll pick up again with Turner, which will be my dark horse team to win an AVP this season.

Which brings us to Saturday, when Turner and Anderson began their charge.

They went three to oust Corinne Quiggle and Sarah Schermerhorn, knocked out sixth-seeded Hailey Harward and Kelley Kolinske 22-20, 23-21, and then bounced 10th-seeded Deahna Kraft and Zana Muno 22-20, 21-16.

“Despite getting (nearly) every serve I’ve never felt so calm,” Turner said. “Playing next to Maddie just feels right. Everything just flows.

“And although we are the underdogs, I think we’re proving that we won’t be for long.”

The first step comes Sunday morning when they play fourth-seeded Betsi Flint and Julia Scoles for a spot in the semifinals. In the other quarterfinal match, third-seeded Canadian Olympians Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson plays fifth-seeded Terese Cannon and Olympian Sarah Sponcil.

Waiting in the…