It has been an, ahem, hard launch to Hagen Smith and Logan Webber’s 2025 beach volleyball season.
They blitzed through the first AVP League qualifier in April, winning every set en route to punching their ticket into the League where they would be “drafted” to the LA Launch. That League debut? A 2-0 start with upset wins over Andy Benesh and Miles Partain and Chase Budinger and Miles Evans. They were backed up by their female counterparts with the Launch, Terese Cannon and Megan Kraft, and at a combined 4-0, they are not only the only team without a loss yet in the League – they’re the only ones with a winning record.
That launch continued on Wednesday at the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour’s Alanya Challenge, as Smith and Webber took out Poland’s Piotr Kantor and Filip Lejawa (21-10, 21-17) and the Czech Republic’s piping hot pair of Jiri Sedlak and Jakub Sepka (21-19, 17-21, 15-13) to move into the main draw.
Alanya marks the second main draw of the year for Smith and Webber, who were seeded directly into the main at the Xiamen Challenge a month ago. They finished 17th, and are now looking for their first top-10 finish since the Xiamen Challenge of 2024, where they took fifth.
It was, all in all, a good day for USA Volleyball teams. Budinger and Evans, who no longer have the entry points to even get into Elite tournaments, followed up on a fifth at the Xiamen Challenge with a pair of qualifier wins to get back into the main draw. While Tim Brewster and Ryan Ierna didn’t make the main draw, they did log a notable win over Austria’s Robin Seidl and Xandy Huber before bowing out to top-seeded Arnaud Gauthier-Rat and Teo Rotar of France.
For schedule and results of the Alanya Challenge, head over to the event page here.
Savvy Simo at the Hermosa Open/Andy J. Gordon photo
Savvy Simo, Abby Van Winkle don’t need clothes to make third straight main draw
Clothes? Who needs any stinkin’ clothes? Savvy Simo’s bags never made it to Alanya. I’m not sure anybody knows exactly where her bags are, actually. Tough, given she’s about to embark on a month-long Eurotrip. But she’s a road dog, through and through, as she and Abby Van Winkle made their third straight main draw of the season, winning their only match, against Canada’s Devin Corah and Dana Rosik (23-25, 21-12, 15-12).
Clothes? Who needs ’em?
They’ll join the fully-attired teams of Deahna Kraft and Xolani Hodel, Hailey Harward and Molly Phillips, and Kim Hildreth and Teegan Van Gunst in the main draw.
The other two USA Volleyball teams in the qualifier, Brook Bauer and Maddie Anderson, and Carly Kan and Devanne Sours, both dropped in the final round of the qualifier.
