Beach Update: Two NORCECA Events Open October in Punta Cana

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Oct. 1, 2024) –  In this week’s beach update, we gear up for two NORCECA events in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, including the debut of the 2024 U23 Beach National Team. We also check in on national team athletes competing in AVP and Queen and King of the Court events as we await the next international competition.

NORCECA Punta Cana

The NORCECA Continental Tour continues this week on Oct. 1-5 in Punta Cana.

Women’s pairs competing for the U.S. will be Xolani Hodel and Alexis Durish along with Molly Phillips and Mariah Whalen.

Durish/Hodel earned a silver medal at the 2024 FISU Beach World University Championships at the beginning of September.

Lev Priima and Dave Wieczorek will be the lone U.S. men’s pair competing in Punta Cana. All pairs earned the right to compete with their finishes at NORCECA Playoff 4 in Hermosa Beach at the end of June.

NORCECA Punta Cana is the first of seven NORCECA tournaments taking place before the end of the year. Following this week’s event will be NORCECA Honduras on Oct. 17-21.

U23 Preview

The U23 Beach National Team touched down in the Dominican Republic and has begun to prepare for the 2024 NORCECA Continental Tour on Oct. 6-9 in Punta Cana.

The U.S. women opening in the main draw are Ella Connor (Cal Poly) and Isabella Martinez (Cal Poly). The U.S. men starting in the main draw are Carson Barnes (Webber) and Ayden Keeter (Webber). Connor is a previous winner of the event with partner Piper Ferch in 2022.

Reserves for the women’s team are Emma Donley (Cal) and Brooke Rockwell (Stanford). Reserves for the men’s team are Gage Basey (Colorado) and Thomas Hurst (UC Irvine). Basey and Hurst took gold at the event in 2022.

Pool play begins on Oct. 7 and the Round of 16 elimination phase begins on Oct. 8. The quarterfinals, semifinals and the medal matches will all happen on Oct. 9.

AVP League

The first indoor event of the season took place at Viejas Arena this past weekend in San Diego as the AVP made its third stop on its inaugural tour.

Four out of eight total teams (one men’s and one women’s pair per team) made the trip to the campus of San Diego State University with several U.S. Beach National Team athletes in action.

Paris Olympians Sara Hughes and Kelly Cheng (New York Nitro) and Andy Benesh and Miles Partain (Dallas Dream) remained unbeaten with 4-0 records on the weekend.

On Sunday, Benesh/Partain earned a 15-11, 17-15 victory over New York’s Taylor Crabb and Taylor Sander, giving the Nitro men’s duo their first loss of the tour.

Also on Sunday, Theo Brunner and Trevor Crabb (Miami Mayhem) defeated Chase Budinger and Miles Evans (San Diego Smash) 15-12, 15-11 to break a two-match skid against the Paris Olympians in AVP play.

“The last match (against Budinger and Evans) was a little more emotional,” Trevor said to the crowd in his post-match interview. “This time we kept it a little more business. We know that if we just play our game and lock in, we are the better team any day of the week.”

Tokyo 2020 Olympic gold medalists April Ross and Alix Klineman closed out the event with a 15-9, 11-15, 15-11 victory over San Diego’s Geena Urango and Toni Rodriguez. The win helped their Miami squad (5-3) tie with Dallas for second in the current AVP League standings.

The AVP League makes its next stop this weekend at the HEB Center on Oct. 5-6 in Austin, Texas. It will then travel to the Delray Beach Tennis Center in Palm Beach, Fla., before returning to Southern California for an event at Frontwave Arena on Oct. 19-20 in Oceanside, Calif.

Queen and King of the Court

Terese Cannon and Megan Kraft were crowned Queens of the Court at the event held in Miami over the weekend.

Queen and King of the Court rules consist of five teams competing in three 15-minute rounds. The team with the fewest points scored is eliminated each of the first two rounds. In the final round, the first team to reach 15 points wins.

Fellow U.S. pair Kim Hildreth and Chloe Loreen led the way in the women’s competition in the first two rounds, but Cannon/Kraft took the all-important third set to earn the crown in Miami. Hildreth/Loreen would settle for bronze

Robert Meeuwsen and Yorick De Groot (NED) scored the most points in the final round to claim the men’s crown in what is expected to be Meeuwsen’s final tournament before retirement.

The Dutch duo beat out U.S. pairs Hagen Smith and Logan Webber, who finished with silver, and Mees Sengers and Tim Brewster, who finished third.