Megan Rice had to try it. No other choice, really.
After the 26-year-old and Corinne Quiggle squandered two match points – match points, if you cared to do the math, worth $20,000 each – in the final round of Saturday’s AVP qualifier in Huntington Beach, a side-out contest ensued. On the other side of the net, Jaden Whitmarsh and Devon Newberry had dug in, showing the resilience that earned them a bronze medal at the Yucatan Challenge out of the qualifier just a few weeks ago.
Rice, armed with one of the biggest serves in the United States, took a rip.
Ace.
Advantage, Rice and Quiggle.
Could she do it again?
That is the typical point of what is known in sports as a heat check – a player going even harder, riskier than the play that preceded it, only to miss. Imagine a basketball player, after hitting a few threes in a row, suddenly pulling up from half-court. Such is the equivalent following an ace in beach volleyball.
Only there would be no heat check here. Rice stayed the course, pumping in another missile down the seam for another ace, clinching the win and a berth into the AVP League for her and Quiggle in their first tournament as a team.
Those two serves may have been the two biggest of her career. After narrowly missing out on the inaugural AVP League a year ago with Brook Bauer, Rice, still relatively new on the professional beach scene, is guaranteed a summer season with Quiggle, whose return after surgery has been remarkable thus far. They are now the fifth team to solidify their spot in the 2025 AVP League, as defending champs Toni Rodriguez and Geena Urango will remain with the San Diego Smash and Hailey Harward and Kylie DeBerg the Dallas Dream. Kristen Nuss and Taryn Brasher have been wild-carded back onto the Austin Aces, and Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson with the Palm Beach Passion.
It leaves three spots remaining, to be contested in two more tournaments in Huntington Beach: another single-elimination qualifier two Saturdays from now, and the Heritage event two Saturdays after that.
While they did not qualify, Newberry and Whitmarsh put themselves in the driver’s seat to qualify via points. They now lead the points race, although they are closely followed by Lexy Denaburg and Julia Scoles, and Savvy Simo and Abby Van Winkle, both of whom finished third.
Hagen Smith passes at the AVP League qualifier/Stephen Fitzgerald photo
Hagen Smith, Logan Webber sweep way into AVP League
Such theatrics as a walk-off ace were not needed by Hagen Smith and Logan Webber. The two made surprisingly quick work of an otherwise elite field on Saturday, sweeping Tim Brewster and Ryan Ierna, Troy Field and Theo Brunner, Avery Drost and Wyatt Harrison, and Seain Cook and Brian Miller in the finals to punch their ticket into the AVP League.
Like Rice and Quiggle, they are the fifth team to solidify their spot in the League, joining defending champs Chase Budinger and Miles Evans of the San Diego Smash, Taylor Crabb and Taylor Sander of the New York Nitro, and Andy Benesh and Miles Partain of the Dallas Dream. Phil Dalhausser and Trevor Crabb received a wild card following the announcement from Dalhausser that he will be retiring after this season.
Cook and Miller provided quite the surprise in finishing second, upsetting Chaim Schalk and James Shaw, who were coming off a bronze medal at the Quintana Roo Elite16 which included a stunner over Sweden’s David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig. While they, like Newberry and Whitmarsh, no doubt wanted to seal up their bid on Saturday, they are the points leaders heading into the final two weekends of qualifying, followed closely by Schalk and Shaw and Drost and Harrison.
Evan Cory digs a ball at the AVP League qualifier in Huntington Beach/Stephen Fitzgerald photo
Evan Cory, Tri Bourne in difficult position
Evan Cory and Tri Bourne were one of the more exciting new partnerships of this upcoming 2025 season. Three events in, they remain something of a question mark. Thus far, they have gone 0-3 in Beach Pro Tour events and Bourne had to pull out of the Huntington Beach qualifier with an injury. Thomas Hurst did an excellent job pinch-hitting on a moment’s notice, helping Cory to beat Alison and Alvaro, but that was as far as they’d go, dropping in the second round.
With only two more events remaining, Bourne and Cory will have no cushion for a low finish in either.
