CARSON — The AVP Championships semifinal rounds were held at Dignity Health Sports Park on Saturday as the Dallas Dream faced the Miami Mayhem and New York Nitro faced the San Diego Smash for the two spots in Sunday’s final.
The Dream beat the Mayhem, winning a combined five sets to one. The Smash’s men beat the Nitro’s men in three sets, and the Smash’s women were up 1-0 at press time.
Miami Mayhem vs. Dallas Dream
Women’s match
Hailey Harward’s precise placement of her hits made it nearly impossible for Alix Klineman to deliver a clean return, despite getting her hands to the ball.
“I knew she was pulling a lot,” Harward said about Klineman’s strategy to retreat from the net just before Harward’s return, “so just trying to find her outside hands.”
She did that in the most crucial juncture, outsmarting Klineman to break an 11-11 tie in the second set, and again on the following point to increase the margin to 13-11. After a block by Harward’s partner, Kylie Deberg, a kill from Klineman on the Dream’s first match point made it 14-12.
But on the second match point, Harward found Klineman’s outside hand to finish the Mayhem in straight sets. Harward’s calculated approach was complemented by Deberg’s ability to win at the net. She had five blocks, including the one that incited the initial match point.
“She was doing great at the net,” Harward said about her teammate.
The Dream women’s straight-set victory gave their men cushion to work with.
Men’s match
After dropping the first set, the Dallas Dream men’s duo of Andy Benesh and Miles Partain took a commanding 9-4 lead in the second set. Nine consecutive side-outs ensued as neither team could grab a stranglehold of the set before Benesh strung together a pair of points to win it.
“They’re the best side out team in the AVP,” Partain said of the Mayhem’s men Trevor Crabbe and Theo Bruner. “They’re a really safe, consistent team. Hard to get them out of system and hard to get kills on them.”
Banesh surely found a way toward the end of that second set and throughout the third one. He punched the ball over the Mayhem’s block to give them an 11-8 lead. He blocked Crabb’s kill to make it 13-8 and had a kill to set up their first match point.
With the score sitting at 14-10, Crabb smacked the ball at Banesh who parried it, his touch giving Partain the option to pass it back to his teammate. Instead, Partain caught the Mayhem off guard, punching the ball with the side of his left fist and the Mayhem were late to react.
The Dallas Dream won a combined five sets to one to advance to Sunday’s final.
While the Miami Mayhem will appear in the third-place game on Sunday, the AVP honored its women’s duo April Ross and Alix Klineman, who announced they will retire after this weekend.
Ross and Klineman won a gold medal together in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and, despite lowering their expectation for this AVP season because of their responsibilities as mothers, they qualified for the playoffs. Ross’s decision to retire was well-documented but Klineman informed the AVP of her imminent departure from volleyball just five days ago.
Following a tribute video for her, Ross fought through tears to tell fans: “I just have a lot of love for everybody, and I’m so grateful to the people who continue to support our sport.”
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New York Nitro vs. San Diego Smash
Men’s match
After splitting the first two sets, the San Diego Smash men’s duo of Chase Budinger and Miles Evans burst to a 10-3 lead in the third set. Their strategy of Evans passing to Budinger, giving him options to dictate the point, was working smoothly. It was a kill from Evans, though, that made it 12-5 before a pair of service errors from the Nitro’s Taylor Crabb set up a match point for the Smash.
On their second try, they returned to that tried and true form, as Evans lofted the ball toward Budinger, who placed a kill just above Crabb’s outstretched arms to win the match.