Team Cup Volleyball was an event in the late 1980s and early ’90s that brought the best of indoor and beach men’s volleyball players into weekly matches held at the Great Western Forum in Los Angeles.
It was wildly entertaining to watch the beach players dominate without the challenges of the elements.
More than 30 years later, the AVP League is duplicating that excitement.
Some of the best beach volleyball players in the world were in attendance Saturday at Viejas Arena for night two of stop No. 2 on the AVP League tour.
If one thing is clear after two events of this unique format, it’s this: trucking in 300 tons of sand into indoor arenas has only made the beach game more thrilling.
“It’s not your traditional beach volleyball event, but it makes it a little more physical for us so that allows us to work on maybe a little faster offense,” said 2024 Olympian Kristen Nuss after her and Austin Aces teammate Taryn Brasher took down the Dallas Dream’s Kylie Deberg and Haley Harward, 15-13, 15-10.
“It’s definitely fun. The crowd enjoys sometimes when they’re not dealing with the heat or the wind or rain, all the elements. So I think the energy is just a little bit higher inside.”
La Costa Canyon High School graduate and 2024 Olympian Chase Budinger and teammate Miles Evans make up half of the San Diego Smash. They defeated the Austin Aces duo of Avery Drost and UCSD graduate Wyatt Harrison in Friday night’s late action, 15-12, 15-13.
To Budinger, Viejas Arena is not unfamiliar. He played in then-Cox Arena in high school basketball’s 2006 McDonald’s All-American Game in which he shared MVP honors with Kevin Durant. The next year, he started for the University of Arizona’s 69-48 win over SDSU.
Budinger had eight kills and hit .538 with three digs, a block and an ace in the win Friday night.
“The game really changes so you have to get back to the basics because everyone’s level is going to rise,” Budinger said. “The game is simpler but tougher because you have to serve tougher, you have to be more precise with your heads and your ing has to be more accurate. Playing in this indoor environment, I’m still searching for what my advantage is, and it’s been fun and challenging.”
Budinger and Evans were locked in a battle with the L.A. Launch team of Hagen Smith and Logan Webber in Saturday’s late match.
The women’s side of the Smash went through an eventful weekend. On Friday, Geena Urango and Toni Rodriguez were leading Brasher and Nuss, 11-10, in the first set before Rodriguez went down with a shoulder injury and couldn’t return.
Abby Van Winkle, who partners with Torrey Pines High School grad Savvy Simo on the AVP Tour as well as internationally, stepped in Saturday in Rodriguez’s place.
Urango and Van Winkle played well together but ultimately dropped a 15-9, 21-23, 15-11 decision to the Launch’s Terese Cannon and Torrey Pines alumna Megan Kraft.
Olympians Andy Benesh and Miles Partain got back on track after Friday’s upset loss to Smith and Webber, downing Drost and Harrison, 16-18, 15-10, 15-9.
Despite going 0-2 on the weekend, Harrison said the challenging format will help them long-term.
“As we go through it and get used to playing with that kind of pressure and buildup, it will definitely help us,” said Harrison, an All-Big West Conference performer and captain at UCSD (2018-21). “These guys are awesome. They’re going to make really good plays and we can live with that. But I liked that we stayed aggressive.”
