The celebration was both quick and long. As soon as Troy Field’s swing into the angle fell against Caleb Kwekel and Peter Connole on Friday night in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, sealing up the AVP Waupaca title, he burst into Evan Cory’s arms and, together, they collapsed to the increasingly wet and packed sand.
It was, as these long tournaments tend to produce, a moment of immense exhilaration as it was relief: Finally, there were no more points to play.
So they just laid there for a bit, soaking in both the rain and the immense accomplishment.
Less than a week after claiming AVP Denver, a second straight AVP Contender title had been wrapped up.
It is, remarkably, the second straight year Cory has pulled off the Denver-Waupaca sweep. In 2024, he did so with Alison Cerutti, beating, funny enough, Tim Bomgren and Field in the finals of the latter. One year later, he did it again, this time teaming up with Field in a second rendition of their partnership.
Nothing about this one came easy.
Their Friday began with a 19-21, 21-16, 27-25 quite literal barnburner of a win against Bomgren and Eric Loeppky in the quarterfinals, a victory that preceded another three-set marathon, a 19-21, 21-17, 15-12 win over Wyatt Harrison and Charlie Siragusa. Meanwhile, on the other side of the bracket, second-seeded Kwekel and Connole were on cruise control, sweeping their first match of pool, drawing a forfeit in the second, and then sweeping their first two rounds of playoffs. A back-and-forth three-set semifinal against Gage Basey and Thomas Hurst, which they won, 19-21, 21-18, 15-12 was the only time they had been pushed. Anybody keeping up with the tournament might assume, incorrectly, that Cory and Field wouldn’t have enough gas in the tank to outlast Kwekel and Connole.
But both have been playing and winning these tournaments, which are as much about endurance as they are skill, for years. Both are well-conditioned, able to dig up any last joule of energy even when there aren’t any available.
They did just that, holding off Kwekel and Connole, 21-19, 21-19 for their only two-set win of the playoffs.
“Love this dude,” Field wrote on Instagram. “So fun on and off the court. Winning is so fun and I can’t imagine it with anybody else.”
The next tournament on either Cory or Field’s schedule will be the AVP Manhattan Beach Open, the final domestic event of the year. After both missed out on qualifying for the AVP League, it’s still unclear who they’ll play with for the AVP’s finale, as they are not tethered to any specific partner, but after two straight wins, more fun could be in store.
Marine Kinna of Loyola Marymount in day 1 action. /Mark Rigney photo
Victory sandwich for Chloe Loreen, Marine Kinna
While it wasn’t a back-to-back repeat win for Chloe Loreen and Marine Kinna, AVP Waupaca was a victory sandwich of sorts for the two. They routed their way to an AVP Virginia Beach title back in June, took third at AVP Denver, and put on a tour de force at AVP Waupaca, sweeping all but one opponent en route to another AVP Contender title.
The only team to put up a fight against Loreen and Kinna was USC stars Ashley Pater and Sarah Wood, the five seed who lost, 28-26, 19-21, 11-15.
No other team, even finalists Ella Connor and Isabella Martinez of Cal Poly, even reached 19 points against Kinna and Loreen.
The AVP Contender success is just the latest in what is becoming the Summer of Kinna. In June, representing France alongside Anouk Dupin, she won a Futures bronze medal on the Beach Pro Tour in Battipaglia, Italy, and followed that up two weeks later with a gold at the Jurmala Futures.
Her last five events, then, have included three wins and two third-place finishes, the most successful stretch of her career.
