Seasoned vets, talented youngsters descend in full force in stacked AVP Denver Tour Series

There are back-to-back AVP tournaments over these next two weeks: a Tour Series in Denver this weekend, a Pro Series in Hermosa Beach the next. Typically, the gap in talent between a Tour Series and a Pro Series, particularly when comparing the locations of the mountains of Colorado to the mecca that is Hermosa Beach, where the vast majority of the professional players live, makes for a stark contrast.

Such is not the case this weekend in Denver.

To compare the two fields side by side is to essentially see the same teams and players.

The top seed — Kelley Kolinske and Hailey Harward — is the same, and second-seeded Deahna Kraft and Zana Muno are only one spot higher than they are in Hermosa. Same goes for the third-seeded Maestrinis, Lili and Larissa. There is an AVP champion, Jen Keddy, at the four seed, alongside Katie Dickens, and main draw mainstays at the five in Corinne Quiggle and Sarah Schermerhorn. There’s a Beach Pro Tour Challenge silver medalist duo in Savvy Simo and Toni Rodriguez at the six, and Tour Series champs Macy Jerger and Megan Rice all the way down at nine.

Indeed, Denver will be treated to a Tour Series that is more akin to a Pro Series this weekend. All of the names mentioned above are ones that, if you are a regular reader of this magazine, you likely know. Here are a few new teams and players to watch this weekend in Denver.

For the full entry list of AVP Denver, head to AVP America. 

Carly Skjodt, Jaden Whitmarsh

There’s a fair chance you’ve become familiar with Skjodt (pronounced Scott) by now. She finished third in the Central Florida Pro Series last December and swept Seaside and the Laguna Open with Molly Turner. She opened this season with three straight ninths and a second in the Virginia Beach Tour Series with Geena Urango. Whitmarsh, from a professional standpoint, still has a lighter resume. The daughter of 1996 Olympic silver medalist Mike Whitmarsh, the 23-year-old Jaden just wrapped up a successful career at UCLA and sealed a bid into Hermosa with Devon Newberry via three solid performances in a series of CBVAs. In her 2023 AVP debut, in Virginia Beach, Whitmarsh flew up from the qualifier all the way to fifth, where her and Newberry were knocked out by — who else? — Skjodt and Urango in a 21-18, 22-24, 17-19 battle that was genuinely distracting to me on the next court over. It was an awesome match between four awesome players.

Xolani Hodel, Kahlee York

The dynamic of this team is similar to Skjodt and Whitmarsh: Two young, NCAA-trained players, one — in this case, York — a bit more experienced while the other — Hodel — is still something of a rookie. I say something of a rookie, because the 21-year-old Hodel does have a bit of experience, namely in Denver and Hermosa Beach of 2022, where she took a ninth and seventh, respectively, with Kim Hildreth. She even nabbed a set off Sara Hughes and Kelley Kolinske in her first round in Hermosa, and upset eighth-seeded Jessica Gaffney and Molly Turner. A first-team All-American out of Stanford, Hodel is now being molded by Jose Loiola and the USA Developmental Program. York, who will be playing defense behind Hodel’s 6-foot-1 block, enjoyed a breakout season in 2022, cleaning up in the Tour Series events. She finished third in Waupaca, fifth in Atlantic City, fifth in Virginia Beach and ninth in Huntington Beach. All of that success in the lower tier events earned her main draw shots in New Orleans, Atlanta, Manhattan Beach, and Central Florida.

Ashley Pater, Sarah Wood

If you want a glimpse at what the future of beach volleyball might look like in, say, eight years, this would be the team to watch. Pater is just 17 years old, though she seems like the veteran in this case, partnered alongside the 15-year-old Wood. Last year in Muskegon, Wood became the youngest player in AVP history to qualify for a main draw, doing so just a month and a half after her 14^th birthday. Some might correctly point out that it was just a Tour Series event, and maybe it should count, maybe not. Wood erased any notion of that when her and Pater finished fifth in Virginia Beach last month, punching their ticket to Hermosa Beach next weekend. Pater is committed to Dain Blanton and USC, and Wood will be getting offers from any school with NCAA Championship aspirations.

Lexy Denaburg, Megan Rice

To nip any confusion in the bud, yes, there are two Megan Rices currently competing on the AVP Tour. One was mentioned earlier, the Megan Rice who is playing with Macy Jerger and won Virginia Beach. On Instagram she is known as Megan Arroz, the Spanish word for rice. For the purposes of this story, that Megan Rice will now be known as Megan Arroz. This Megan Rice, the one alongside UCLA standout Lexy Denaburg, did not attend the University of Florida and graduate with a degree in mechanical engineering. This is West Coast Megan Rice, a first-team All-WCC outside hitter indoors for LMU and a consistent winner for John Mayer on the beach. Denver marks Rice’s fourth AVP of her career, following a ninth in Virginia Beach with Ali Wheeler. Denver will be Denaburg’s third event of the season, after a third in Virginia Beach that sealed up a main draw into Hermosa Beach with Carly Kan.

Alaina Chacon, Kylie Deberg

If you’re sensing a theme here, you are correct: Alaina Chacon and Kylie Deberg are two more NCAA-trained talents beginning to emerge onto the AVP. The “College Mafia” as I’ve coined them. Chacon is 24 years old but has only played in one AVP, in 2019 alongside Katie Horton. A serial winner at Florida State, Chacon graduated second all-time in career wins in Tallahassee and last season served as the volunteer assistant coach under Brook Niles and Nick Lucena. In her only event this year, she finished fifth at a NORCECA in the Cayman Islands with Deberg. Deberg, meanwhile, is another in a long line of LSU graduates full of promise at the professional ranks. While in Baton Rouge, she drew comparisons to Taryn Kloth, as both stand 6-foot-4, both were developed primarily indoors before transitioning late to the beach, and both made that transition awfully quick. Deberg was immediately slotted onto court 2, where she finished 33-10. Like Chacon, she’s played just one event this year, in the Cayman Islands, and Denver will mark their AVP debut.

Charlie Ekstrom, Kylin Loker

Neither Loker nor Ekstrom has played in an AVP this season, but the lack of reps at the professional level is hardly reason to doubt them. Both are coming off an NCAA season in which they played more than 30 matches each. Ekstrom finished 23-17 on courts one and two, which feature AVP and Beach Pro Tour level competition more often than not. Loker finished 21-13 primarily on court two and actually beat Ekstrom in the season-opening tournament in Hawaii while they were both on court one. Now, as it tends to go in this sport, rivals have become teammates, and they make a rather nasty 46 seed in Denver.

Nicole Nourse, Audrey Nourse

One of the clutchest pairs in NCAA beach volleyball, the Nourse twins were again the ones to seal the NCAA Championship for USC this past May, winning 15-11 in the third set of the final court for a third straight national title. There is certainly no way of measuring this, but they might be the new unofficial record holder for best 60-seed in AVP history. Their last AVP came in Manhattan Beach of 2022, where they made it through the qualifier and finished 25^th. After a 30-6 season on courts one, two and three this year under Dain Blanton, they should be primed to make a deep run in Denver.

Carli Lloyd, Madi Kingdon Rishel

It’s not often you seed an Olympic medalist buried as the 63 seed, particularly in a Tour Series event, yet here we are, in Denver, and Carli Lloyd, who set the USA to a bronze medal in 2016, is indeed that 63 seed. Denver marks the 2023 debut for Lloyd, and sort of her beach debut, despite the fact that she played in the Manhattan Beach qualifier in 2022. Now back from a season in Italy’s A1 league, Lloyd is tinkering with the notion of swapping the shoes for flip-flops full-time, picking up a former national team teammate in the 30-year-old Kingdon. She could be the answer to a fun trivia question, Kingdon, the only player to receive All-American honors in indoors and beach in 2014-2015 while at the University of Arizona. She might not have the Olympic medal that Lloyd does, but Kingdon is the owner of a Champions Cup bronze and back-to-back VNL golds in 2018 and 2019.

Devon Newberry, Delaynie Maple

The amount of swagger on this team — the “drip” I believe the kids are calling it these days — is through the proverbial roof. Here are two of the best players in the NCAA, leading the two best teams in the NCAA, winning just about every match there was to play this season. Newberry, after recovering from shoulder surgery, went 13-0 with Jaden Whitmarsh and has already punched her ticket to Hermosa. Maple has only, oh, won three straight NCAA Championships and won 31 of 36 matches this season, mostly with Megan Kraft on court one. Newberry will end her career at UCLA with a 71-20 record and is now onto the AVP Tour as full-time as one can get midway through the season. Maple will have one more year at USC, where she will attempt to finish her career in a manner no player has done before: Four consecutive national titles.

Travis Mewhirter