The 2026 AVP League is set, opening play in Belmar, New Jersey May 30-31. Below are the eight teams, with breakdowns and previews of each.
Miami Mayhem
Taylor Crabb and Andy Benesh
Kelly Cheng and Megan Kraft
The AVP has done it again, forming a behemoth of a favorite by combining Kelly Cheng and Taylor Crabb. Two years ago, during the 2024 AVP League, it was Crabb and Taylor Sander, and Cheng and Sara Hughes forming the New York Nitro.
Now, it’s Crabb and Andy Benesh, and Cheng and Megan Kraft teaming as the Miami Mayhem.
Their results early in the 2026 season are eerily similar. Both began their partnerships over the 2025/26 off-season and surprised many. Both opened their partnership with a bronze medal at the Joao Pessoa Elite. Both are in the AVP League by virtue of winning a qualifier.
And together, they open the 2026 League season No. 1 in our first AVP League Power Rankings.
Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson celebrate winning in Montreal/Volleyball World photo
Palm Beach Passion
Trevor Crabb, Phil Dalhausser
Melissa Humana-Paredes, Brandie Wilkerson
There are three women’s teams vying for the unofficial title as best in the AVP League, and Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson are certainly one of them. Their 2026 season has gotten off to an outstanding start, winning a silver medal at the Saquarema Elite, matching their medal count from 2025 in a single tournament. Wilkerson looked her usual brilliant self, and Humana-Paredes has added some new funk on her serves to make earning points even easier for one of the best block-D teams in the world.
Trevor Crabb and Phil Dalhausser, of course, like their female counterparts, need no introduction. Phil is Phil, and Trevor is Trevor, the antihero beach volleyball will forever need. The only potential wrinkle in this team is that Crabb is now full-time with Chase Budinger, but that’s hardly a wrinkle. He rarely practiced with Dalhausser anyway, and Phil, as we said, is Phil – he’s gotten more than enough reps to play four weekends out of the year in a set to 15 format in which he’ll play for half an hour or so a day.
Kristen Nuss and Taryn Brasher celebrate winning the championship during the AVP Manhattan Beach Open on August 17, 2025 in Manhattan Beach, CA. (Photo by Will Chu)
Austin Aces
Kristen Cruz, Taryn Brasher
Troy Field, Ryan Wilcox
My favorite part of Kristen Cruz and Taryn Brasher being on the Austin Aces again is that they will probably lead the AVP League in… fewest aces hit.
The irony is beautiful.
They simply don’t need service pressure, not when Cruz, the three-time Beach Pro Tour Best Defensive Player, is in the back court and when Brasher is putting up her usual enormous wall of a block. They’re the best women’s team in the field, supplemented by what might be the most entertaining men’s team in Troy Field and Ryan Wilcox.
For their part, Field and Wilcox were on life support prior to the final AVP League qualifier – when they promptly went bonkers and punched their ticket. This team might be the one we know what to expect the least, as you could get the pair who bombed in a pair of qualifiers, or the one who looked like a high-octane machine in week three. They’ll be balanced out, of course, by the most consistent team on the planet in Cruz and Brasher.
James Shaw digging at the AVP Qualifier #2 in Manhattan Beach on April 4 2026 by Andy J Gordon
New York Nitro
Toni Rodriguez, Molly Shaw
Chaim Schalk, James Shaw
The most power couply team of all power couples, we have a married couple in James Shaw and Molly Shaw, and one soon to be married in the recently engaged Chaim Schalk and Toni Rodriguez (Toni Schalk??). What a love story of a season this will be, although, given the high-stakes nature of sports and relationships, a couples therapist may be an advisable hire.
Jokes aside, Schalk and Shaw are still the team who took fifth in the World Championships, stunned Sweden’s David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig in Quintana Roo, took third at the Manhattan Beach Open and second in Hermosa. Did they play exceptional in the AVP League qualifiers? No. Are they still one of the best teams in the League? Absolutely.
Shaw and Rodriguez, too, haven’t yet found their elite footing from 2024, where they went on a three-medal heater on the Beach Pro Tour. Then again, how could they? They’ve only played a few qualifiers, and they’ve shown promise, making the finals and losing narrowly to Kelly Cheng and Megan Kraft of the Mayhem.
Miles Partain/Volleyball World photo
Dallas Dream
Paul Lotman, Miles Partain
Betsi Flint, Kylie Deberg
This will be the team after most every fan’s heart. How can you not root for Supermom Betsi Flint, who qualified for the League less than a year after giving birth to her second kid? How can you not pull for Kylie Deberg, whose 2025 had the best laid plans, only to be derailed as soon as it got going by a shoulder injury to her international partner, Toni Rodriguez, and has now bounced back with Flint? How can you not root for Paul Lotman and Miles Partain, the Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker of beach volleyball?
Consistency will be the expected potential snag for the Dream, as there are a lot of moving pieces to both teams. Partain and Lotman live hours from one another, and Partain is testing a partnership with James Shaw. Who knows how often he and Lotman will actually train together, and how much Partain prioritizes League play over international this season.
Flint, we’ve mentioned, just had another kid. The recovery from that – not to mention on minimal sleep and the constant exhaustion that comes with parenting a toddler and a newborn — to both train and compete at a high level is no small thing.
But we’ve seen highs from both pairings already, and they’ll stay dangerous.
Evan Cory – Photo by Rick Atwood
Brooklyn Blaze
Lexy Denaburg, Julia Donlin
Evan Cory, Derek Bradford
Julia Donlin had another knee procedure this off-season, which is why we haven’t seen this team since they took a huge fifth at the World Championships, finishing an international season on three straight top-fives. What can be expected of the 2025 Champs is hard to say, but this much is known: For athletes struggling with health or recovering from something or other – see Flint: Betsi – the sets to 15 format of the AVP League is useful. That should help Donlin and her cranky knees. Should Donlin and Lexy Denaburg both be fully healthy, or healthy enough, they’re one of the most physical teams not just on the AVP, but the Beach Pro Tour.
Physicality, too, is a strength of their male counterpart in Evan Cory and Derek Bradford. Cory is now a certifiable veteran who is still looking to fully break into the top-tier of American talents. He’s betting on Bradford, a 6-foot-9 unicorn, to be the man he can do that with. Their performance in the AVP League qualifiers was convincing enough, making the finals in the first and the semifinals in the last. Their three losses came to two winners and a finalist in Chase Budinger and Miles Evans.
That’s a high floor for a young and developing team.
Hagen Smith celebrates a point during the AVP League Qualifier on April 12, 2025 in Huntington Beach, CA. (Photo by Will Chu)
LA Launch
Hagen Smith, Logan Webber
Alaina Chacon, Maddie Anderson
Smith and Webber were one of the more delightful stories of the 2025 AVP League, and easily the best watch. Smith is built for the League, the entertainer and antagonist it needed to get people watching and paying attention. But he’s more than just those two aforementioned traits – he also played his best beach volleyball in 2025, and it’s one of the many reasons why he and Webber were straight into the League in 2026. Webber, it should be mentioned, has quietly, consistently grown into one of the top blockers in the U.S. They’re a weird team, seeing as Webber is playing internationally with Tim Brewster, and Smith with Ryan Ierna, but such is the nature of many teams in the League.
Alaina Chacon and Maddie Anderson, as it goes for Teams Located Outside of California, are the under-the-radar underdogs of the AVP League. Let this help put them on the radar: They’re legit. Anderson is the winningest player in Florida State history, no small feat given FSU’s pedigree as a top-five NCAA team. Chacon is as gritty a defender as any, a tremendous athlete who has found a high-level partner in Anderson.
Geena Urango/Rick Atwood photo
San Diego Smash
Chase Budinger, Miles Evans
Geena Urango, Megan Rice
Chase Budinger and Miles Evans were the most consistent men’s team in America the past few seasons. Now, like many teams in the League, they’re only kinda, sorta a team. Budinger’s new partnership with Trevor Crabb makes his AVP League partnership with Miles Evans no less awkward than Chaim Schalk and James Shaw’s or Miles Partain and Paul Lotman’s, or Trevor Crabb and Phil Dalhausser’s, or Hagen Smith and Logan Webber’s, and I am so very intrigued to see how all these half-partnerships play out on the court. But they’ve been exceptional the past several years, and who knows, maybe some time off will make the heart grow fonder and they’ll be world-beaters once more.
Geena Urango, the veteran’s veteran, and Megan Rice have no such qualms. They’re a partnership, through and through, to the point that Urango is even dabbling in international play for the first time in eight years. Love to see it. They’ll have some proving to do, as they were the last team to make it into the League, but they have a few notable wins on the resume and a fourth at the Nayarit Challenge.
