AVP Huntington Beach Open: Miles Partain, James Shaw start strong

HUNTINGTON BEACH — Miles Partain and James Shaw put their new partnership on display during the opening rounds of the AVP’s Huntington Beach Open on Friday.

Early signs indicate they make a great fit.

Partain and Shaw advanced to Saturday’s winner’s bracket semifinals by sweeping their first two matches on the opening day of the three-day event, which serves as the unofficial season opener on the AVP Tour.

The fifth-seeded pair took advantage of Shaw’s powerful, pinpoint jump serves, Partain’s strong court sense, and their shared setting skills to keep their opponents from making any sustained runs against them.

“We’re finding our groove, one match at a time,” Shaw said alongside the Huntington Beach pier. “It’s the fun part of a new partnership.”

Partain, a 24-year-old Pacific Palisades native who was the 2022 MPSF Player of the Year while playing indoors at UCLA, qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics with former partner Andy Benesh (Palos Verdes High, USC).

They competed together last year as well, but Partain opted to lighten his workload before the qualifying cycle for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics begins at the end of this year.

Partain inquired with Shaw if he’d be interested in partnering up for select AVP events this year and the former Stanford indoor setter was quick to accept his offer.

If their performance on Friday was any indication, they could remain together for a while.

“The talent is there, obviously,” said Phil Dalhausser, a four-time Olympian who lost to Partain and Shaw in the second round on Friday. “When James is serving like that, they can be tough to beat.”

Shaw, 32, stands 6-foot-8, the same height as Benesh, but his setting background allows more flexibility when attacking.

“A lot of beach setters are just used to setting the same direction every time,” Partain said. “If they’re going to set a different direction, they need to know well in advance, like three or four seconds before, but I can tell (Shaw) like one second before and he can do it. It opens things up a lot more.”

Shaw’s powerful jump serve helped him accumulate five service aces in the winner’s bracket quarterfinal win against fourth-seeded Dalhausser and Trevor Crabb (Long Beach State).

Shaw said he likes serving in Huntington Beach because the sand is shallower than at their training grounds at Hermosa Beach, giving it more spring.

“The jumpiness helps me with my serve, and I get really aggressive with it,” he said. “That played a huge factor in (the second-round) match. Hopefully, we can keep that going the whole way through.”

Partain and Shaw began their day with a 21-14, 21-19 win against 12th-seeded Derek Bradford (Simi Valley Royal High) and Evan Cory.

Partain and Shaw then faced off against Crabb and Dalhausser, the defending AVP League champions who reached the final of the Manhattan Beach Open last summer.

Crabb and Dalhausser built a lead of 8-5 in the opening set, but an ace by Shaw gave his team a 17-15 advantage before they eventually won, 21-18.

Crabb and Dalhausser could not return three straight serves by Shaw in the second set, allowing them to move ahead 5-3. Partain and Shaw then scored four straight points behind more tough serves from Shaw, extending the lead to 10-7. Crabb and Dalhausser never got back within two points before a service error by the 46-year-old Dalhausser ended the set at 21-17.

“It’s one thing to win out here, but once they get on the world tour, that’ll be their test,” Dalhausser said of Partain and Shaw. “On the world tour, they’re not messing around. There’s no 46-year-old weekend warrior.”

Another new men’s team that is drawing a lot of attention is Benesh and Taylor Crabb.

That duo also advanced to the winner’s bracket semifinals, although the second-seeded pair needed three sets in their second-round match to get past 10th-seeded Troy Field and Ryan Wilcox.

The third-seeded team of Tijan Ahmed and Younousse Cherif, who represent Qatar, also needed three sets to knock off sixth-seeded Hagen Smith (Loyola High, UCLA) and Logan Webber in the second round, 19-21, 21-17, 15-10.

Top-seeded Chase Budinger and Miles Evans did not drop a set while advancing to the winner’s bracket semifinals, where they will face Partain and Shaw on Saturday at 2 p.m.

The two top-seeded women’s teams advanced to the winner’s bracket semifinals, but ran into stiff competition in the second round on Friday.

Top-seeded Taryn Brasher and Kristen Cruz advanced with a 21-19, 19-21, 15-9 victory over ninth-seeded Devon Newberry (Marymount High, UCLA) and Savannah Simo (UCLA), while second-seeded Kelly Cheng (El Dorado High, USC) and Megan Kraft (USC) got through the second round with a 19-21, 21-14, 15-10 win against 10th-seeded Chloe Loreen and Corinne Quiggle (Pepperdine).

The two international women’s teams that were added to the field in a new move for the event lost in the second round of the 16-team double-elimination event.

Third-seeded Thâmela Coradello and Victoria Lopes of Brazil, ranked No. 3 in the world by the FIVB, lost to 11th-seeded Ally Batenhorst and Sara Hughes (Mater Dei High, USC), 23-25, 21-19, 10-15.

Hughes teamed with Cheng at the 2024 Olympics before missing last season after undergoing Achilles surgery.

After needing three sets to get past Hailey Harward (Long Beach State, USC) and Xolani Hodel (Huntington Beach High) in the first round, fourth-seeded Anouk and Zoe Vergé-Dépré of Switzerland were swept, 21-13, 21-15, by fifth-seeded Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson in the second round.

The Vergé-Dépré sisters are ranked eighth by the FIVB.