Riverside Recap: Mild, Medium, HOT, or simply no sauce

With only the finals remaining at the 2009 Crocs AVP Riverside Open, let's take a look back at the last 54 hours of action to see what's hot, what's not, and everything in between...

No Sauce - After meticulously packing my volleyball bag Thursday night, I couldn't find the battery for my webbie cam! Not only that, but after searching for two days I have no idea where it is charging itself! So, many apologies for no videos or photos from the event. Unbelievably poor form on my part so I'll do my best to make up for it in San Diego!

HOT - New CEO Jason Hodell and the AVP office. If you read my post from April 10th, I shared my thoughts on the departure of Leonard Armato as CEO. In the word of Peter Drucker, business is marketing and innovation., and the lack of both at the AVP the past 4 years has been awful. But with new management comes fresh ideas, and this week the AVP unveiled three unique branding initiatives in Riverside: AVP Fantasy Game; AVP TV on the web, and a new web series called Transition (check it all out at http://www.avp.com/ ). The AVP needed to join the New Economy and leverage the power of the Internet to grow its fan base. Guess what...someone is paying attention!

Medium - Mayer/Nygaard. The first team to beat the Olympic Gold Medalists and the AVP's most dominating team Dalhausser/Rogers this year. If only Mayer/Nygaard would have followed-up this huge victory with another win, then they could have made my HOT list. But alas, a victory like that is understandably emotional, and their tank was empty against Hyden/Scott. They did however fight back and finish 3rd to finish a solid overall tournament.

HOT - NCAA Women's Beach Volleyball as a scholarship sport. There was a women's collegiate volleyball tournament which was held on site in conjunction with the AVP Riverside Open. The event brought teams from schools all over the country. The action was exciting, fast, and fun; throw in the support I saw from the fans and this dream of beach volleyball as a NCAA scholarship sport is going to become a reality in the very new future.

No Sauce - Friday's attendance. Had I been able to take video of the Malibu Rum tent, you would have seen one of the saddest AVP spectacles in recent memory. Even the scantily clad rum girls were bored of themselves! On 6 separate occasions throughout the day I walked by the usually festive tent and saw not one person hanging out in there. It was a microcosm of the attendance all day: sparse.

Mild - McPeak/Kropp. Holly McPeak is a volleyball legend. She has the third most victories in women's beach history and has been an great ambassador for the sport. Her recent partnership with the young, talented Kropp has been met with mild success. They were the only top seed on the women's side not to finish at or above their seed. Seeing a tireless worker like Holly go out like this is tough to watch. But finishing 9th isn't terrible for this new partnership, so let's see if they can grab a top 5 finish in San Diego.

HOT - Hanson/Rutledge. This 8 seed beat the aforementioned #6 seed and was playing some great ball, with Rutledge stuffing a tourney best 30 balls and Hanson leading the women's side with 9.50 digs per game...holy crap that's a lot of digs! They bettered their seed by taking a fifth.
Medium - Loomis/Patterson taking a 7th. This is a very good young team, and I am not just saying that because they played almost flawless volleyball in knocking me and Jewell out of the tourney! The very next match they beat the 10 seed Prosser/Brazao in two before falling to Medel/Stolfus for the second time in Riverside.

Hot - Tyra Turner. She had one of the most impressive all-around stat sheets of the weekend: 0.448% hitting, 12 blocks, 13 aces, and 48 digs, making her the only player on either the men's or women's side to rank in the top 16 of all four categories.

Mild - Fuerbringer/Jennings. Jenning's return to the beach after an injury was so-so for the #3 seed. They finished 9th with Jennings hitting 0.337 but getting his customary grip of digs. Look for them to bounce back after two more weeks of practice for a nice finish in San Diego, an event they won last year.

Hot - Brittney Hochevar's hair. The punked-out do was a hit, with the Long Beach State grad turning in another solid performance and a 7th place finish.

No Sauce - Hanneman/Marchewka, Stonebarger, Ring/Roumain, and Zinc! Stonebarger, the other half of "Team Gorgeous" from a year ago, is winless since the breakup and finished 25th. Hanneman/Marchewka failed to win a match for the second straight event. Ring/Roumain, one of the most exciting and physically dominant teams on tour 4 years ago, finished 17th and looked un-Ring/Roumain-like all tourney long. And lastly, ZINC! Skin safety is a must for all pro volleyball players, but there was a "Braveheart" sighting late Friday and this very pretty volleyball player looked like she was getting ready for a tribal war! There has to be another way to get that level of sun protection:)

Hot - The city of Riverside. I am usually not a fan of events away from natural beaches, but major kudos to the city of Riverside for transforming its city streets and a parking lot into a very cool site. The players' lounge was in the convention center adjacent to the site, the sponsor village was spread out nicely right as you walked in the venue, and the stadium court and outer courts had a great layout where fans could watch multiple games at once.

And as always, I end my recap reflecting my own performance, but first things first...

Hot - My friend Rafe Furst. For those of you who do not know Rafe, you should check him out at http://www.rafefurst.com/. He is an inspiring individual who I am blessed to have as a good friend. Rafe drove the hour drive east not only Friday, but Saturday as well to watch all my matches! Good friends, good times, a little volley...not a bad way to spend the day. Thanks Rafe.

Medium - Jewell/Moran finish 13th. We started off with a bang by posting the only true upset of round 1 beating the 12 seeded team of Wachtfogel/Strickland. We lost to Hyden/Scott, beat Stewart/Phipps, then fell to Loomis/Patterson. Had we come out Saturday morning with the same fire, passion, and energy we did on Friday I would have given us a 'A' for our first tournament together, but the energy on the court was just plain funky Saturday morning. At one point, Adam told me to calm down because he thought I was too amped. I am a fiery player who performs better when I'm smiling, talking, and letting it all hang out. It worked Friday. For some reason we were on different pages Saturday morning. Oh well, it happens. Playing with Adam was a blast and while we both would have preferred a top 10 finish, it was a great experience.

I did finish the event as the 7th ranked attacker with a hitting % of 0.480. With 23 digs, 4 blocks and 0 aces, the rest of the stat sheet could have used some filling up. Overall, I thought we played steady enough to win another match and put us in position for a better finish. The biggest thing I need to improve is not giving up multiple points in a row. While my sideout % is top 5 so far this year on tour, it is the way I give up points that hurts. I might sideout 7 times in a row, but then I give up 2 points in a row before settling into a rhythm again; by that time, the damage is done. Also, a couple of players told me I have a good serve and they didn't understand why I wasn't jump serving. My answer: I don't know?! What I do know is that the jumper is coming back for San Diego!

So that does it for the recap. Now we turn our attention to San Diego in two weeks! until next time, see you on the beach!

Thank you to my sponsors Smack Sportswear, Maloney Vision, Unlimited Fitness.