AVP’s return to New Orleans spiced with great weather, volleyball, LSU matchups

KENNER, Louisiana — The AVP lucked out. 

In a place where a late-May day is typically more oppressively hot and humid, where it can rain more in six hours than it does in Southern California in a year, Friday was a Chamber of Commerce day in Baton Rouge.

And the volleyball was stout, with more on the horizon Saturday in what should be another relatively cool, dry day for the AVP Pro Series New Orleans Open at Coconut Beach.

The focus Saturday will be more on the locals than ever. 

The pair of former LSU greats Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth, becoming known as TKN on Tour, play former LSU teammate Toni Rodriguez and former UCLA standout Savvy Simo in the winners bracket. Nuss, who grew up just a short distance away in Metairie, and Kloth have a large fan base of their own, while Rodriguez, who is from Gonzales, about 40 miles to west, has plenty of fans, too. And for that matter, the UCLA contingent here Friday was pretty strong, not only to watch Simo, but others like Abby Van Winkle and Zana Muno. 

There’s also another local product, Evan Cory. He and partner Bill Kolinske ran into the old-man buzz saw of Phil Dalhausser and Casey Patterson on Friday night and play in the contenders bracket.

Start with second-seeded Nuss and Kloth. They opened with a win over yet another former LSU player, 15th-seeded Kahlee York and her partner Megan Gebhard 21-14, 21-18. That set up a late-night match with one of the hottest teams around, Corinne Quiggle and Sarah Schermerhorn. Interestingly, last week at Volleyball World Kusadasi Challenge in Turkey Nuss and Kloth won it all after getting through the qualifier, while Quiggle and Schermerhorn took ninth.

But Friday night, Quiggle, the former Pepperdine star, and Schermerhorn, who came to the beach after playing indoors at Elon University took the first set 21-19 and led in the second 13-9. The LSU kids sided out and then Kloth went on a serving tear and she and Nuss went on to win the set 21-19 and the third 15-8.

In the match before, 11th-seeded Rodriguez and Simo beat Canadian Olympian Brandie Wilkerson and Muno 19-21, 21-18, 15-12. Earlier Friday, they beat Emily Day and Hailey Harward 21-19, 19-21, 15-11.

In the other women’s winners-bracket match, top-seeded Kelly Cheng, the former USC great, and Betsi Flint play fifth-seeded Meghan Kraft and Emily Stockman. Cheng, the USA Olympian, and Flint grinded in both their matches, first having to rally to beat 16th-seeded Brook Bauer and Katie Horton 18-21, 21-14, 15-12. Then they defeated eighth-seeded Jessica Gaffney and Molly Turner 21-17, 21-18. 

Kraft, who will only be a junior at 2022 NCAA-champion USC, and Stockman opened with a 21-19, 21-13 win over Delaney Mewhirter and Lexy Denaburg. Then they came up big, knocking off fourth-seeded Brazilians Liliane Mestrini and Olympian Larissa Maestini 18-21, 22-20, 17-15. 

How about Dalhausser and Patterson? The top-seeded pair of 42-year-olds play fourth-seeded Chase Budinger and Troy Field in one winners-bracket match, while third-seeded Taylor Crabb and Taylor Sander play seventh-seeded Paul Lotman and Miles Partain in the other.

Dalhausser, who is retired from international play and is competing on the AVP this year at his leisure (note, he and Andy Benesh won AVP Austin), and Patterson opened with a 21-19, 18-21, 15-9 win over 16th-seeded Noah Dyer and Chase Frishman. Then they overpowered Cory and Kolinske 21-17, 21-18.

Lotman and Partain, the UCLA setter who was the MPSF player of the year this season, battled to a 23-21, 13-21, 15-11 win over seventh-seeded Tim Bomgren and Piotr Marciniak in their first match. Then as the temps dropped and the breeze picked up at night, they knocked out second-seeded Nick Lucena and Andy Benesh in an up-and-down outcome 21-10 (after going up 8-0), 16-21, 18-16. 

Lucena, by the way, is also 42, but a youngster compared to John Hyden. Hyden, 49, is playing with Logan Webber (just 26) and Friday they beat Eric Beranek and Avery Drost 21-18, 16-21, 15-12, before falling to the Taylors, Crabb and Sander, 19-21, 21-19, 15-13.

Action resumes at 2 p.m. Saturday and can be seen live on the AVP’s YouTube channel. 

And it came up more than once Friday, what it was like here in 2016, the last time the AVP had a major even in the New Orleans area. Rain-plagued would not do it justice. So trust that AVP is thrilled that Saturday it will be in the mid-80s under a cloudless sky.

Click here for the women’s results and schedule courtesy of BVBinfo.com, and here for the men’s.

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