Dear Readers~
On May 5, 2019 the semifinals and finals for the men and women competing at the 2019 AVP Huntington Beach Open happened. The men competing include #8 Trevor Crabb and Tri Bourne taking on #1 Taylor Crabb and Jake Gibb while #7 Tim Bomgren and Troy Field played against #6 Casey Patterson and Chase Budinger. The women competing include #1 April Ross and Alix Klineman taking on #2 Sara Hughes and Summer Ross while #4 Emily Day and Betsi Flint took on #14 Melissa Humana-Paredes and Sarah Pavan.
The first women's semifinal was April and Alix taking on Summer and Sara. The first set was close, ending at 25-23, with April and Alix taking that set. The second set ended at 21-18 with Summer and Sara taking that set and causing a third set to happen. The third set ended at 15-9 with April and Alix taking the set and advancing to the finals. In case you're wondering, there's no relation to Summer and April, unlike other players on the AVP with similar last names, like husband and wife pair of Billy and Janelle Allen, or brothers Riley and Maddison McKibbin.
The second women's semifinal was Betsi and Emily taking on Melissa and Sarah. The first set ended 21-19 with Emily and Betsi taking that set. The second set ended at 21-12 with Melissa and Sarah taking that set and causing a third set to happen. The third set ended at 16-14 with Melissa and Sarah taking it and advancing to the finals as well as knocking Betsi and Emily out of the tournament.
The first men's semifinal was Trevor and Tri taking on Jake and Taylor. The first set ended at 21-14 with Taylor and Jake winning that set. The second set ended 21-18 with Tri and Trevor taking that set and pushing it to a third set. That third set ended 15-11 with Taylor and Jake winning that set and advancing to the finals as well as knocking Tri and Trevor out of the tournament. For those wondering, yes Trevor and Taylor are brothers with Trevor being the older one of the two.
The second men's semifinal was Tim and Troy taking on Casey and Chase. The first set ended 21-16 with Chase and Casey taking that set. The second set ended 21-19 with Chase and Casey taking that set as well and advancing to play Taylor and Jake in the finals. This was Troy's first semifinal appearance ever since starting his career at the Austin Open back in 2018.
The women's final was April and Alix taking on Melissa and Sarah. The first set ended close at 21-18 with Melissa and Sarah taking that set. The second set ended at 21-12 with April and Alix taking that set and pushing the match to a third set. The third set was the closest of the three during the women's finals. That set ended at 17-15 with April and Alix winning that third set and becoming the 2019 AVP Huntington Beach Open champions, as well as the pair winning their fourth straight AVP tournament, since they won the tournaments in Manhattan Beach, Chicago, and Hawaii at the end of the 2018 season.
This is a picture of the 2019 AVP Huntington Beach Open Champions, Alix Klineman (left) and April Ross (right) Don't forget to follow them on Instagram to follow their 2019 season full of international travels: @aprilrossbeach and @aklineman10 along with their coach, Silver medalist at London 2012 Jennifer Kessy: @jenniferkessy
The men's final was Taylor and Jake taking on Casey and Chase. The first set ended very close at 27-25 with Taylor and Jake taking that set. The second set was close, but not as close as the first. The score at the end of that set was 21-14 with Taylor and Jake winning the set and defeating Chase and Casey in back to back sets to become the 2019 AVP Huntington Beach Open men's champions.
These two are your 2019 AVP Huntington Beach Open champions, Taylor Crabb (left) and Jake Gibb (right) Make sure to follow them as their 2019 season is full of international travels: @tcrabbs and @jakesgibb Don't forget to follow their coach, gold medalist at the Beijing 2008 Olympics, Rich Lambourne: @richyusa
That concludes my blog covering the semifinals and finals for both men and women at the 2019 AVP Huntington Beach Open in Huntington Beach, California. Stay tuned as I get ready to cover the next AVP stop in Austin, Texas in my next blog. Don't forget to see how some of the other teams did, like the McKibin brothers along with Stafford Slick and Billy Allen in my blog over some of the men's teams at Huntington or if you prefer the women's side, there's a blog covering how April and Alix played before the semifinals and finals along with the youngest players to ever play in an AVP main draw, 16 year olds Megan Kraft and Delaynie Maple. Until next time, Miller out
Before I officially end this blog there is some big news that dropped on Thursday, June 13, 2019 coming from the official Instagram page of the AVP about professional beach volleyball athlete Eric Zaun. That post is put below so if there's more you'd like to know about Zaun as a person Travis Merwhitter wrote a tribute about him for P1440 which is linked here for those that are willing to check it out but just a warning so you can be ready: The stories Travis tells are very sad and have gotten several people emoional: https://p1440.com/news/you-cannot-replace-an-eric-zaun/ Eric was one of the reasons I wanted to attend the 2019 AVP Manhattan Beach Open in mid August. Things will never be the same on the AVP or the FIVB. You will be missed Eric. Eric Zaun 1993-2019
Y'all may find this hard to believe but he was born only 6 years before me. If you'd like to follow Zaun on Instagram, his username is here: @ericzaunbeachvolley
~J. Miller
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