New York Nitro’s Season Comes Home. Brasher/Cruz Meet Humana-Paredes/Wilkerson on CBS
Central Park is where the season comes home for one team and where the marquee women’s matchup of the year takes place for two others.
New York Nitro closes its 2026 AVP League regular season at home in Wollman Rink on July 18-19, with both pairs at 1-5 and the math saying their playoff hopes can end here. Austin Aces’ Taryn Brasher and Kristen Cruz face Palm Beach Passion’s Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson on CBS Sunday at 1pm ET — the first meeting of 2026 between two Olympic pairs that have played each other 14 times since 2022.
Palm Beach Passion plays its final event of the regular season, its last chance to build the AVP Cup lead before Miami Mayhem and San Diego Smash get their turns to answer. San Diego returns to competition after seven weeks off with an unbeaten men’s pair and a dark-horse Cup claim. And Austin’s story splits: unbeaten women, winless men, same city.
Live broadcasts on CW Saturday afternoon, CBS Sunday, and CBS Sports Network across Sunday afternoon. The full broadcast schedule is below.
New York Nitro’s Season Comes Home
Toni Rodriguez, Molly Shaw, Chaim Schalk, and James Shaw play their final regular-season matches this weekend, in their own city. Both pairs enter at 1-5. Both play San Diego Smash and Austin Aces across Saturday and Sunday.
The men need to win both matches to stay mathematically alive going into the final events, and they need help from other results. Chaim Schalk and James Shaw enter Central Park 0-4 as the actual New York Nitro partnership, all four losses coming in three sets across Aspen and Vegas. Their team’s only AVP League win this season came at Belmar when Theo Brunner subbed for James Shaw. Central Park is their first chance to win as the actual partnership.
The women’s path is even narrower. Toni Rodriguez and Molly Shaw’s only AVP League win came at Vegas — a 15-7, 15-13 sweep of Dallas Dream’s Kylie DeBerg and Betsi Flint. Even winning both Central Park matches doesn’t guarantee they stay alive.
The Saturday 3pm ET CW slot puts New York Nitro’s women against Austin Aces in front of a home crowd on network television. The Sunday 3pm ET CBSSN slot delivers the same team against San Diego Smash. Both pairs are on the brink. Both need to win out and get help. The Marquee Match: Brasher/Cruz vs Humana-Paredes/Wilkerson on CBS
Sunday 1pm ET on CBS delivers the highest-profile women’s matchup of the season so far.
Taryn Brasher and Kristen Cruz enter Central Park as one of only two unbeaten pairs left in the League. They are 2-0 through their AVP League debut at Miami, sitting at #1 on the women’s standings and #1 in the World Rankings. Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson enter at 4-2 across three events, tied with Miami Mayhem’s Kelly Cheng and Megan Kraft at 66.7% and sitting in the top 3 of the women’s standings alongside them.
The head-to-head history is deep. Brasher and Cruz lead Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson 10-4 across 14 AVP and Olympic meetings since 2022. But Wilkerson and Humana-Paredes have taken three of the last four, including the Paris Olympic Round of 16, the 2024 AVP Chicago Finals, and the 2024 AVP Huntington Beach Finals. Brasher and Cruz answered by winning the most recent meeting at 2025 AVP League Week 6, in three sets — 13-15, 15-9, 15-12.
Sunday is the first 2026 meeting. And it’s the first meeting since Humana-Paredes returned from the hip injury sustained at the Miami event, which kept her out of Vegas.
CBS network broadcast. Two Olympic pairs. Four years of history. Direct implications on the women’s playoff seeding, since a Brasher/Cruz win moves them to 3-0 and Palm Beach to 4-3, while a Humana-Paredes/Wilkerson win takes Palm Beach to 5-2 and Austin to 2-1.
The AVP Cup Race Pivots at Central Park
Palm Beach Passion plays its final event of the regular season this weekend. Central Park is where their Cup campaign concludes.
Miami Mayhem currently leads the AVP Cup standings at 9-3, 26 match points. Palm Beach Passion also sits at 9-3 but with 23 match points. San Diego Smash is 3-1 (75%) with only four matches played. All three teams have Cup claims, but Palm Beach’s window closes this weekend, while Miami gets East Hampton to answer and San Diego has three events still to play.
The Saturday 2pm ET CW slot opens the entire event with Palm Beach women vs San Diego women, the first Cup-relevant match of the weekend. The Saturday 5pm ET YouTube slot delivers Palm Beach men vs San Diego men to close Saturday. Both matches are direct Cup race collisions between the two teams tied at the top of the AVP Cup standings.
Palm Beach’s men enter 5-1 and already clinched. Their matches this weekend are about seeding and the Cup, not survival. Trevor Crabb and Phil Dalhausser will face San Diego’s Chase Budinger and Miles Evans in a matchup between two of the League’s best two-set win rates.
Palm Beach’s women can clinch a playoff spot at Central Park. They are 4-2 and this is their last chance to lock it in themselves.
San Diego Smash Returns After Seven Weeks Off
San Diego Smash last competed at Belmar, Week 1 of the season, more than seven weeks ago. Chase Budinger and Miles Evans went 2-0 there. Megan Rice and Geena Urango went 1-1.
Since then, four AVP League events have happened without them. They enter Central Park with the smallest sample of any team in the League — four total matches played — and the most road left ahead. Six matches remain across three events after Central Park.
San Diego’s men can clinch a 2026 playoff spot at Central Park if they sweep. With their current 2-0 record, two more wins puts them at 4-0 with four matches still to play, and the math closes the door for enough of the field to lock them in. Whether they hit that scenario depends on their weekend performance and Austin Aces’ remaining matches, but the option is on the table.
The dark horse question is whether seven weeks off shows up as rust or as fresh legs. Every other Cup contender has been playing continuously. San Diego arrives with the smallest data set and the biggest ceiling.
Austin Aces: Same City, Opposite Trajectories
Taryn Brasher and Kristen Cruz are 2-0. Troy Field and Ryan Wilcox are 0-2. Same team, opposite ends of the standings.
Brasher and Cruz sit at #1 on the women’s standings with a perfect record through their AVP League debut at Miami. They are one of only two unbeaten pairs in the League (alongside San Diego’s Chase Budinger and Miles Evans on the men’s side).
Field and Wilcox sit at #8 on the men’s standings as the only winless pair in the League. Central Park is their second event. They have six matches remaining across three events, tied with San Diego for the most in the League. Their season is still ahead of them, and the record is thin enough that everything is still in reach.
The Saturday 4pm ET YouTube slot delivers Austin men vs New York Nitro men — a crossroads match. Two teams that need it. Only one can leave with a win.
What Long Beach Changed
Miami Mayhem’s four-match sweep at Long Beach reshaped every standings race. Miami’s men clinched their playoff spot at 5-1. Miami climbed to the top of the AVP Cup standings at 9-3. The women’s logjam thinned — Brooklyn Blaze dropped to 2-4, LA Launch and Dallas Dream both to 3-3, and Miami’s women pulled clear at 4-2, level with Palm Beach.
How to Watch
Saturday, July 18 (ET)
- 2:00 PM — Women: Palm Beach Passion vs San Diego Smash (CW)
- 3:00 PM — Women: Austin Aces vs New York Nitro (CW)
- 4:00 PM — Men: Austin Aces vs New York Nitro (YouTube)
- 5:00 PM — Men: Palm Beach Passion vs San Diego Smash (YouTube)
Sunday, July 19 (ET)
- 1:00 PM — Women: Austin Aces vs Palm Beach Passion (CBS)
- 2:00 PM — Men: Austin Aces vs Palm Beach Passion (CBSSN)
- 3:00 PM — Women: San Diego Smash vs New York Nitro (CBSSN)
- 4:00 PM — Men: San Diego Smash vs New York Nitro (CBSSN)
All YouTube matches stream on the AVP YouTube Channel.
Event Details
The 2026 AVP Central Park event runs Saturday and Sunday, July 18-19 at Wollman Rink, Central Park, New York City. For full event details, visit the event page. Get your tickets here.
AVP members get 10% off all event tickets, 25% off AVP merch, and 30% off Wilson volleyballs. Join at members.avp.com.
New York Nitro’s season comes home. Two Olympic pairs meet on CBS. The AVP Cup pivots. Central Park is where it starts to close.
Follow the race to the playoffs at avp.com/league.