It was the eve before arguably the least pressure-packed tournament of Billy Allen’s professional beach volleyball career, and, in spite of having quite literally nothing but a match to lose and everything to gain, he was nervous.
For weeks, he’d spun the same story: As an assistant coach at Stanford – and not a full-time player – nobody was expecting him to win, particularly when considering his partner: another full-time defender in Taylor Crabb. Outside of an entertaining CBVA in Santa Cruz (they won), they’d never before played together. Allen didn’t have a partner, Crabb, with his usual partner Taylor Sander still finishing up an indoor contract in Indonesia, didn’t either.
Why not run a fun little tournament in Huntington Beach?
Nothing to lose, right?
Right… and wrong.
“The night before, as much as you tell yourself, ‘Hey, no pressure, you’re playing with another defender, blah blah blah,’ I still felt nervous which seems silly,” Allen said on this week’s episode of SANDCAST. “I was giving myself all the excuses why we wouldn’t do well. I was kind of hurt, we hadn’t been practicing, we’re both defenders. The night before I said ‘Screw it, let’s just go in the night before thinking you’re going to do well.’”
Well? How about taking a third in a cutthroat, single-elimination tournament, one in which their first round matchup came against Sam Schachter and Jon Pickett, Canada’s new No. 1 duo who was coming off an Elite16 in Brasilia in which they upset both Cuba’s Jorge Alayo and Noslen Diaz and Italy’s Sam Cottafava and Gianluca Dal Corso. It was Allen and Crabb, however, standing at 6-foot-2 and 6 feet, respectively, who swept a pair of Canadians each standing 6-foot-5 and playing the positions in which they’ve been trained. Then they did it again, sweeping Avery Drost and Wyatt Harrison – who, despite the loss, still qualified for the AVP League – earning a spot in Sunday’s semifinals against Chase Budinger and Miles Evans.
“It went a lot better than I thought,” Allen said, laughing. “I actually had to change my flight a couple times.”
Those who tuned into Huntington should be glad he did. That semifinal made a firm case as the most entertaining match of the weekend.
“Most fun I’ve had watching volleyball in a long time,” Nick Lucena said.
Allen and Crabb logged five blocks in a 26-24 first-set win, a performance so pure and fun, just two good volleyball players going out to play volleyball, that Rich Lambourne and Casey Patterson were unapologetically rooting for the undersized duo on the comms.
“They got three coaches in the box!” Patterson joked after the first set. “It’s not fair!”
Indeed, Allen’s two years assisting at Stanford were paired with Crabb’s inaugural season as an assistant at St. Mary’s, both of which were compounded by the decades of experience of Evie Matthews, Crabb’s longtime coach with Sander.
“Just sided out,” Allen said. “We didn’t score that many points. Just sided out well. Just found a way.”
Ultimately, it was Budinger and Evans who found a way to alas knock out Allen and Crabb, but it was a most pleasant surprise and viewing experience to see two veteran players simply figuring it out, all the way to a third and a $7,000 paycheck.
“I was on the fence because we had NCAAs the week before, hadn’t been practicing a lot,” Allen said. “It’s pretty easy when you’re playing with a good volleyball player. We just found a way. It exceeded my expectations. I’m glad I played.”
