Andy comes up aces
Pro beach: 6-foot-9 Benesh serves up a storm in AVP Huntington Beach Open final while Dream Team partner Crabb registers 22 digs
Chalk up a first title for the American Dream Team of Taylor Crabb and Andy Benesh, who collected the surfboard trophies as champions of the AVP Heritage series Huntington Beach Open.
Second-seeded Taylor and Andy rolled through the “Surf City” tournament (double-elimination until Olympic-crossover semifinals) undefeated, dropping one set in five matches.
On a sun-kissed-but-breezy SoCal Sunday, the 34-year-old Crabb and the 6-foot-9 Benesh, age 31, emphatically closed the book on the feel-good story of 12th-seeded Derek Bradford and Evan Cory during the semis 21-16, 21-11.
The final order of business was the title match with top seeds Chase Budinger and Miles Evans, who had eked out a 21-19, 21-19 semifinal victory over third-seeded international superstars Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan, representing Qatar. That slugfest ended in a bizarre fashion as Evans’ overhead “tomahawk” dig of Cherif’s on-2 option scud missile careened over the net and found unoccupied sand for an over-on-1 kill.
The championship match saw a 21-18 first set conclude with a dull thud when Evans served the ball long. The second stanza went into overtime, helped along by ill-timed late service errors committed by both Budinger and Evans. But back-to-back jump-serve aces by Benesh closed it out 23-21, the second of which Andy admitted was a mis-hit.
“That was not where I was trying to hit the ball, but if you’re aggressive, sometimes the volleyball gods favor you,” Benesh told the Orange County Register. “It was an awesome way to end the match.”
Crabb had every confidence in his new partner: “That’s why I never panic. I know he’s going to come through in the clutch. I believe in him. He always comes up big in the end.”
Andy dialed up four aces in the final against two errors and made four blocks. Crabb also picked up a service winner, but the stat by Taylor that popped off the page was 22 digs. Conversely, Evans cracked four aces, but made nine errors from behind the line. Budinger had an ace against three errors.
“We had a lot of tight sets that we were just able to pull out,” Benesh told the Register. “Taylor played incredible all weekend. He really helped me out when I was getting in some ruts on sideouts. We’re stoked with the result, obviously, but we’re more happy we were able to implement what we’ve been working on in practice.”
Taylor and Andy will split the $15,000 first-place check. Crabb got his 15th AVP title and fourth at Huntington Beach (2019 with Jake Gibb, and 2022 and '24 with Taylor Sanders). Benesh has seventh AVP crowns (six at the top-tier level) and he won the Surf City tourney in 2023 and '25 with Miles Partain. The Huntington Beach event was the first (and one of only three) bracket-style Heritage series tournaments offered in 2026 by the AVP, which has focused on its League series that begins May 30-31 with the Belmar Beach stop on the Jersey Shore.
“It’s always our expectation to win a tournament,” Crabb said. “It’s hard to do, and it’s hard to actually execute it, but we did. We played well all tournament. Good first AVP and just getting us ready for our partnership. We’re excited.”
Crabb and Benesh got together after Andy and Partain split up. They had represented the United States in the 2024 Paris Olympics, advancing to the quarterfinals, but their 2025 results were lackluster. Partain and Benesh failed to make the podium in seven world-tour events, lowlighted by a 17th-place finish in the World Championships.
Andy and Taylor also have played three tournaments this season on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour, all in Brazil. They started off strong with a bronze medal in the Joao Pessoa Elite, but then failed to get out of pool play at the Saquarema Elite and finished ninth at the Brasilia Elite.
A pressing question after Budinger and Evans put down another strong performance this week is: Why exactly are the 2024 USA Olympians and defending Manhattan Beach Open winners breaking up? They went through the Huntington winners bracket unbeaten until the final (handling Partain and his new partner, 6-foot-8 James Shaw, and Cherif-Ahmed) and both have signed up for upcoming world-tour events with different teammates.
Chase and veteran Trevor Crabb are the top seeds in the BPT Nuvali Challenge in the Philippines that starts Wednesday. Miles’ next tournament will be the Alanya Challenge (June 10-14) in Turkey with Wyatt Harrison. Budinger and Evans still will be partners in the AVP League, having been awarded a spot in the eight-pair field as the wild card.
The Huntington Beach women’s draw featured surprise results in the semifinals that led to pairs emerging from the losers bracket squaring off for the title.
The big shocker came when ninth-seeded Devon Newberry and Savvy Cory (nee Simo) knocked off the world’s best women’s duo, top seeds Taryn Brasher and Kristen Cruz (nee Nuss), 21-19, 17-21, 15-13. Newberry and Savvy had been beaten in three by Brasher-Cruz in the second round Friday, but turned the tables on Sunday.
Third-seeded international wild cards Thamela and Victoria also had been sent to the losers bracket after a second-round defeat. Second-seeded Kelly Cheng and Megan Kraft were handily dispatched by the Brazilians in the semifinals 21-15, 21-13 as the 5-foot-10 Victoria registered 19 kills on .571 hitting, two aces and 16 digs.
Victoria was a buzzsaw again in the 21-18, 21-17 title-match victory against Newberry and Savvy: 18 kills, three aces and 21 digs. Newberry had 10 pull-digs (Devon is excellent at that) a block and 13 kills.
A second-place finish was the best for Newberry, 25, in 24 AVP events. Savvy, 27, has two lower-tier AVP victories and also picked up a second in the upper-tier Hermosa Beach event in 2023 with Megan J. Rice.
Devon and Savvy, who formed a partnership this year, have registered noteworthy performances on the world tour, making the knockout rounds in all three of the Brazil Elites and earning a bronze medal at Brasilia. They hold victories over reigning Olympic gold medalists Duda and Ana Patricia, reigning world champions Tina Graudina and Anastasija Samoilova (twice) and now Brasher and Cruz.
“We’re still learning so much about each other,” Newberry told the Register. “We’ve never gotten an easy route through tournaments, which makes us so happy because we get to see what it takes to make it to the top and beat the top.”
However, the next time American fans will get to watch this dynamic new duo in home sand won’t come until mid-August in the Manhattan Beach Open. Newberry and Savvy don’t have a spot among the eight women’s pairs competing in the AVP League.
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It's good to see Benesh and Crabb look the way that partnership should look. I know Taylor doesn't care about medals and just wants to live the life, but watching the top US defender fritter away his early 30s rather than commit to a high-level blocker was bad for the sport. This partnership needs to stick.
Not sure what went down with Budinger/Evans, but I will bet that if Budinger/Crabb ends badly, Trevor won't be as likely to pull punches as past Chase partners.