In my previous blog I covered a few of the male teams competing in Huntington Beach for the 2019 AVP Huntington Beach Open happening May 3-5, 2019. The male teams were Riley and Maddison McKibbin along with Billy Allen and Stafford Slick, so now it's time to cover the women's bracket. The two teams I chose to cover were #24 ranked Megan Kraft and Delaynie Maple along with #1 ranked Alix Klineman and April Ross.
You're probably wondering why out of all of the teams competing at the Huntington Beach main draw did I choose the #24 team. That's because Kraft and Maple are each only 16 years old, making them the youngest athletes to ever compete in the main draw of an AVP event since the AVP started back in 1983 and had it's first tournament in 1984. Both have also been accepted to play beach at UsC and haven't even graduated high school. Now it's time to see how the 16 year olds did. In their first match in the main draw, they played against the #9 ranked team of Brittany Hochaver and Carly Wopat. The first set ended at 21-12 with Brittany and Carly taking the first set. The second set was closer, ending at 21-18, with Brittany and Carly taking that set as well and putting Maple and Kraft into the contender's bracket. The next match Maple and Kraft played was against the #23 team of twin sisters Audrey and Nicole Nourse, better known as the Nourse twins who turned 18 just days before this tournament, meaning that this match was only teenagers playing. The first set ended at 21-13 with Maple and Kraft taking the first set. The second set was a little closer, ending at 21-15, with Maple and Kraft taking that set as well and knocking the Nourse twins out of the tournament. The third game Maple and Kraft played was against the #16 ranked team of Brittany Tiegs and Jessica Sykora. The first set ended at 21-17 with Tiegs and Sykora taking the first set. The second set was close, ending at 22-20, with Maple and Kraft taking that set and causing a third set. The third set ended at 16-14 with Tiegs and Sykora taking that set and knocking Maple and Kraft out of the tournament.
The second women's team I'll be covering is the #1 ranked April Ross and Alix Klineman. Their first match was against #17 ranked Alexa Strainge and Emily Hortong. The first set ended 21-10 with April and Alix taking that set. The second set ended 21-18 with April and Alix taking that set as well and knocking Strange and Hortong into the contender's bracket. Their second match was against #9 Brittany Hochaver and Carly Wopat. The first set ended 21-19 with April and Alix taking the first set. The second set ended 21-9 with April and Alix taking that set as well and knocking Hochaver and Wopat into the contender's bracket. The next match was against #4 ranked Emily Day and Betsi Flint. The first set ended 21-17 with April and Alix taking that set. The second set ended 21-15 with April and Alix taking that set as well and knocking another team into the contender's bracket. The next game April and Alix played was against #2 Sara Hughes and Summer Ross, because this was a semifinal match that game will be saved for a later blog along with the other semifinal and final matches so stay tuned for that.
April (front) and Alix (back) just doing what they love in Huntington Beach, California. Don't forget to follow April and Alix on Instagram as they work their way to the Tokyo Olympics: @aprilrossbeach and @aklineman10
That concludes the women's bracket of the 2019 AVP Huntington Beach Open in Huntington Beach, California. Don't forget to check out my previous blog as I covered the men's bracket and stay tuned for my next blog as I cover the semifinal and final matches of the tournament on both the men's and women's sides of the bracket. Until then, Miller out
~J. Miller
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