Back on the AVP Tour

It was a successful first weekend for Phil and I in Miami. We took home the first place prize defeating Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal. Weather was a bit dubious but fortunately for us it was only windy in our finals. The women had to play their finals in driving wind and rain. Personal congratulations to Elaine Youngs and Nicole Branagh for winning the tournament. Congrats to Nicole as well on her first ever victory.

Miami was pretty nice from my perspective. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't South Beach, but it was still nice. Conditions were warm if a bit windy and the setup was nice. A bit disappointed in fan attendance but from what I hear it was a late date setup by the AVP and the local promoter, the Miami Heat Group, did not have a lot of time to promote the event. Hopefully next year will be sold out.

Playing wise, Phil and I progressively got better throughout the tourney. Saturday we had a very tough game vs. Doble/Loomis squeaking out the first game 24-22 and the second 21-19. In the first we were down the entire match by 3 or 4 points but came back in the end to win it. In our second round we beat Jennings/Williams in a 3 game battle 21-15, 20-22, 15-12. I think that team will be someone to watch for future successes. They serve well and their ball control is second to none. Mark Williams is a very good blocker and Casey gets a hand on just about everything on defense.

On Sunday we played Jake and Rosy in the semifinals of the winners bracket and won 21-11, 33-31. They must have been warming up in the first game as the second was an absolute battle indicated by the score. We were fortunate to pull that out in two games. In the crossover semis we played Mike Lambert and Stein Metzger. Phil came out exceptionally strong at the net in game 1 as he blocked several balls to open up a 7-2 lead. We maintained that lead throughout the game to win 21-15. The second game was nip and tuck the whole way. We pulled it out 21-19 when Phil squeaked one between Lambo's arms for a sideout and the match. In the finals we beat Jake and Rosy again, 21-16, 21-18. We started off very slowly in each game going down 3-0 each time. We were able to regroup though and caught them midway in each game and passed them down the stretch.

My take on the men's side is Karch is still the most amazing defender to watch play defense. He was stellar all tourney long. He may not jump like he used to, but he still has by far and away the best ball control in the game and at age 46 no less.

Jason Ring and Matt Olsen are the most sick athletic team on tour. Jump out of the gym, hammer balls, and quick as cats. It will be interesting to see if they can keep it up. They certainly have the talent to do so.

I expect Dax and Jeff to do better in Dallas the more Jeff gets his sand legs under him. I also expect them to get better as the season progresses. There is no substitute for practice and they have only been practicing for about 3 weeks or so.

Sean and Matt were a bit of a disappointment in Miami. I am sure they feel that way as well. It will be interesting to see if this team stays together for the whole year. Personally, I think the longer they play together the better they will get. Sean will continue to get better on the right side and their defense and team chemistry will continue to improve. When I first played with Sean I went through the same thing in switching sides. It isn't easy for a lifer on the left side to play right. It takes time to get your trouble shots down. I expect they will be in the winner's mix towards the latter part of the season if they stick it out.

As for the other two top teams. Lambo and Stein are still very very good. Jake and Rosy are still very very good. I expect it will be a battle all season long.