Evan Cory and Troy Field evidently love playing volleyball together on Fourth of July weekend.
Two years ago, they celebrated America’s independence by barnstorming a Futures in Helsinski, Finland, winning five straight matches to secure Cory’s first Beach Pro Tour gold medal and Field’s second. At the time, that win seemed almost expected. In retrospect, they beat a who’s who of up and coming stars on the Beach Pro Tour, topping Austrians Timo Hammarberg and Tim Berger, Germany’s Benedikt and Jonas Sagstetter, and Norway’s Markus Mol, all of whom have gone on to enjoy quite a bit of success in Challenge and Elite tournaments.
Two years later, they did it again, winning AVP Denver on Fourth of July weekend.
Again, they did it without dropping a match, navigating a gauntlet of a bracket that included Denver’s own Basey Brothers, Lars and Gage, in the quarterfinals (21-29, 21-18), Billy Allen and Paul Lotman (21-14, 21-19) in the semifinals, and DJ Klasnic and Logan Webber in the finals (21-16, 11-21, 15-12).
Cory is no stranger to winning Contender events, or in Denver. He won last year with Alison Cerutti — after making the finals with Bill Kolinske in 2022 — and then followed that up with another win in Waupaca. In three Contenders in 2025, he has finished third in Palm Beach with Caleb Kwekel, second in Virginia Beach with Derek Bradford, and now first with Field in Denver.
Field was coming off a NORCECA silver medal — or silver Pelican — in Honduras with Ryan Wilcox, and the win is his first since he and Cory won in Helsinski two years ago.
They will be heading straight to Wisconsin for this upcoming week’s Waupaca Contender.
Rick Atwood photo
Geena Urango, Avery Jackson win AVP Denver
There is a rule in AVP Contender series tournaments that any player in the AVP League cannot play with a player ranked in the top 50 on the AVP rankings. It makes for some fun partnerships, veterans playing with rookies, or old partners reuniting, or good friends teaming up to run a fun tournament together.
Such is the partnership of Geena Urango and Avery Jackson, the former a veteran, the reigning MVP of the AVP League, the latter a rising sophomore star at Stanford. Entering as the five seed, Urango and Jackson won every match, and wouldn’t so much as drop a set until the finals, against Carly Kan and Devanne Sours, a final they’d win, 15-21, 22-20, 15-11.
It is no surprise to see Urango winning events such as these. Denver was the 86th AVP of her career, and she’s won tournaments of much grander magnitude, take the 2022 AVP Atlanta Gold Series with Julia Donlin. But Denver was the first AVP tournament of Jackson’s career.
We’ll call it a good start.
Speaking of.
Hot start continues for Alexis Durish, Audrey Koenig
Alexis Durish and Audrey Koenig could not have begun their professional international careers on a higher note, with consecutive gold medals in as many weeks at a NORCECA in the Cayman Islands and a Futures in Geneva, Switzerland.
The run continued this past week in France, where they collected yet another medal, this one of the bronze variety, at the Montpellier Futures.
Again, they made it to the podium after beginning the tournament in the qualifier, beating Natalie Myszkowski and Taylor Wilson, former NCAA stars in their own right, to make the main draw. A loss in the semifinals to eventual champs Sofia Gonzalez and Sofia Izuzquiza of TCU put them in the bronze medal match, where they swept the Czech Republic’s Martina Maixnerova and Kylie Neuschaeferova, 21-16, 21-14.
