The AVP announced that both Kristen Nuss and Taryn Brasher of the Austin Aces and Brandie Wilkerson and Melissa Humana-Paredes of the Palm Beach Passion have both been awarded wild cards in the upcoming 2025 AVP League.
The move is a no-brainer.
Despite their actual world rankings as No. 11 and No. 34, respectively, Nuss and Brasher and Wilkerson and Humana-Paredes are two of the top five teams in the world – Nuss and Brasher are routinely the top-seeded team at Elite16s, and Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson are coming off an Olympic silver medal, Canada’s first podium on the women’s side. With the recent achilles injury to Sara Hughes, which sent the partnership dominoes tumbling and leading to Kelly Cheng picking up Molly Shaw, they are, by a considerable measure, the two best teams on the AVP. With two wild cards to give, it was an obvious choice.
But Cheng and Shaw are taking a gamble as well, as the AVP decided not to grant an injury sub for Hughes which is an interesting choice. Cheng has long been one of the best blockers in the world, the 2023 World Champ who was one half of the most dominant team in the AVP League a year ago, alongside Taylor Crabb and Taylor Sander. They’ll now have to earn it via the final two Huntington Beach qualifiers. They are the No. 8 seed in the main draw in Saqaurema, prioritizing, it seems, a push for World Championships in Australia in November over an extra shot at a League qualifier.
As for the men, the AVP has decided not to award any wild cards, making this weekend’s single-elimination qualifier — one of three in a series of qualifiers — in Huntington Beach that much more compelling. Unlike the women, only a single men’s team – Chase Budinger and Miles Evans, who are automatically in the AVP League by virtue of winning it a year ago — are skipping out of the qualifier to compete at an Elite16 in Saquarema, Brazil. Taylor Sander and Taylor Crabb, and Andy Benesh and Miles Partain are also straight into the League, although neither are playing in Brazil.
Terese Cannon and Megan Kraft, who were not granted a wild card, are taking a chance, then, skipping Huntington to compete on the Beach Pro Tour as the No. 3 seed in Brazil. Coming off a silver medal at the Quintana Roo Elite16, Cannon and Kraft have now medaled in five consecutive Beach Pro Tour events, a streak that is unmatched by any team in the past two seasons on the Beach Pro Tour.
Toni Rodriguez and Geena Urango, and Hailey Harward and Kylie DeBerg, are both automatically into the League, so they aren’t skipping out on a potential qualifying spot, as Rodriguez and DeBerg – they play together internationally – are the No. 12 seed in Saquarema and Harward and rookie Molly Phillips are the 11 seed in the qualifier.
Interestingly, Brook Bauer and Maddie Anderson, coming off a pair of excellent tournaments in Mexico, are also skipping the Huntington qualifier in favor of the Saqaurema qualifier, where they are seeded third.
