Wilkerson aces AVP Miami test with Humana-Paredes; Crabb-Sander fine “winning ugly”

A few months ago, Brandie Wilkerson declared to her new assistant coach, Dan Waineraich, that she couldn’t jump serve. She’d tried. She’d missed. Just wasn’t for her. Waineraich, a Brazilian who currently assists for Marcio Sicoli at Pepperdine and formerly assisted for Tri Bourne and Trevor Crabb, would have none of it.

Keep jump serving, he implored. It’ll come, and when it does, the world might not be ready for it.

And so she did.

What a fitting end it was, then, when her first AVP victory would come on a jump serve ace down the line of Julia Scoles, sealing a 21-16, 24-22 victory over Scoles and Betsi Flint in AVP Miami, Wilkerson’s first on Tour.

“I’m very lucky to have a teammate and a coach that just said go for it,” Wilkerson said. “When I get the green light I’m going to go for it.”

That green light resulted in nine aces for the weekend for Wilkerson, tied for fifth in the tournament (Flint, wielder of one of the meanest float serves in the world, led all players with 14). And if she wasn’t earning points via ace, she was liable to do so at the net, where she blocked 19 attacks, leading the field and making a strong debut to defend her 2022 AVP Blocker of the Year nod.

“I have her on my side now?” Humana-Paredes said back in January. “Thank God!”

The same could be said from Wilkerson as well, as it was Humana-Paredes who led the tournament in digs with 92. In three tournaments this year, they’ve made quite the argument as perhaps the best defensive team in the world. They’ve won two of those tournaments, their worst finish being a fifth in February’s Elite 16 in Doha, Qatar. Last week, they were crowned the Queens of the Court when they won six of nine rounds and thoroughly dominated the field in the finals, proving that, oh yes, this team is quite capable on offense, too.

“I remember having conversations in Chicago about how Brandie was more introverted or reserved in university and she’s evolving away from that, and I was more extroverted and now I’m evolving away from that, to be more introverted and more of a homebody,” Humana-Paredes said in January. “We’re different in those respects and it’s been interesting to see how we’ve evolved away from that and how we can support each other and observe that in a really respectful and caring way.”

Be it Humana-Paredes supporting Wilkerson with the green light on jump-serving — or hand-setting, another new skill she’s added this off-season — or Wilkerson adapting to Humana-Paredes’ personality, both the tangible and intangible ingredients are there to produce the alchemy of a team prepared to become one of the best in the world.

“I’m feeling fresh,” Humana-Paredes said. “I love Miami. This crowd has been amazing all week.”

And they have been amazing to Miami in kind, sporting tiaras and garish robes throughout downtown South Beach after their Queen of the Court victory. They were there, training on the public courts, with both American and international teams in town to prep for the upcoming Elite 16 in Tepic, Mexico. And they’ll be there for a few days longer before they themselves are off to Mexico, where they’ll enter as the nine seed in the main draw.

“It was meant to be,” Wilkerson said. “This is perfect timing and we are loving it and it’s showing.”

Earlier Sunday, Wilkerson and Humana-Paredes, the top seed, knocked out second-seeded Terese Cannon and Sarah Sponcil 21-11, 21-15. In the other semifinal, third-seeded Flint and Scoles bounced fifth-seeded Larissa and Lili Maestrini 21-19, 21-17.

For full women’s results and statistics, head to AVP.com

Taylor Crabb, Taylor Sander ‘win ugly’ at AVP Miami

Taylor Sander and Taylor Crabb knew they didn’t want their first tournament of the 2023 season to begin in a Beach Pro Tour qualifier, which is how it would have begun had they, like four of their American counterparts, traveled to La Paz, Mexico, this weekend instead of Miami. Anticipating the long grind to come in 2023, they enjoyed an extended off-season. Didn’t touch a ball. Lifted some weights. Sander payed an open gym or two at BYU. Crabb messed around with some fours at 21^st Street in Hermosa Beach.

“That’s why we’re going to start off with AVP Miami because we haven’t been training much,” Crabb said several weeks ago, when they began their pre-season. “We don’t want to just throw ourselves into the international scene and get spanked down real quick. We want to be ramping up.”

The result was, in Sander’s words, “some ugly volleyball by us all weekend.” Which speaks to just how talented Crabb and Sander are: Even when playing some of their “ugliest” volleyball, they still finished AVP Miami a perfect 5-0, winners of their third straight tournament as a team.

How ugly was it?

Down nine with nine to play ugly.

After winning the first set of the AVP Miami final, 21-14, over Chase Budinger and Miles Evans, Crabb and Sander’s long off-season seemed to rear its head for 10 or 15 minutes. They went down 6-1, then 11-2, then 12-3. Fans would have been forgiven had they left to grab a snack for what appeared to be an inevitable third set.

It’s a good thing they didn’t, for that third set that would never arise.

There was never one monumental run that brought them back. It was a Sander block — one of six in the finals — here, a Crabb ace there. An error or two from Evans and Budinger, a wild rally, and in a blink, suddenly the score was…tied? At 15-15?

“One of the best comebacks I’ve ever seen,” commentator Dain Blanton said on the mic. A comeback that was completed with a Sander angle swing, a 21-19 second-set victory that would be punctuated by a mixed sensation of elation, relief, exasperation — the whole gamut of emotion.

“It was all week long,” said Crabb, who has now won four straight AVPs dating back to the Phoenix Championships in September. “That was our motto this week was that we’ve got ourselves and each other’s backs and we believe we can win any game.”

Down 13-10 in the third set of the quarterfinals to Tim Brewster and Kyle Friend? Never a worry. Heading well into overtime in another third set in the semifinals against Cody Caldwell and Chase Frishman, one that would finish 21-19 in the third of a 70-minute match? No sweat. Down 12-3 in the finals?

What sense would it make to begin stressing now?

“Like Taylor said, we have heart, we believe and we won playing ugly,” Sander said with a laugh. “We’ll continue playing better. So stoked we got this win.”

In the semifinals, top-seeded Crabb and Sander defeated 11th-seeded Cody Caldwell and Chase Frishman 18-21, 21-18, 21-19. Third-seeded Budinger and Evans advanced with a 21-17, 21-14 victory of second-seeded Phil Dalhausser and Troy Field.

The full men’s results and statistics are at AVP.com

Travis Mewhirter