Brasher and Cruz Complete the Summer. Trevor Crabb and Dalhausser Go Back-to-Back.
The 2026 AVP League season ended the way seasons are supposed to end: sold out both days at Oak Street Beach, packed and loud, with the two best teams of the year lifting the crowns.
Taryn Brasher and Kristen Cruz won the AVP League Championship to complete a summer without precedent, adding the League title to their Manhattan Beach three-peat. And Trevor Crabb and Phil Dalhausser defended their 2025 crown, becoming back-to-back League Champions in the same season they won back-to-back AVP Cups. Between the finals sat the upset of the year, and the numbers underneath the weekend tell the story of exactly how each match was won.
The Dream Final Happened. Brasher and Cruz Won It.
Every title Taryn Brasher and Kristen Cruz chased in 2026, they won. A three-peat at the Manhattan Beach Open without losing a match. The #2 League seed, stolen on the final weekend in Dallas. And on Sunday at Oak Street Beach, the AVP League Championship, 15-10, 15-12, in the final the entire season pointed toward: Brasher and Cruz against Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson, the #2 seed against the #1, the deepest rivalry in the women’s game with a championship attached.
The tactical story is in the block column. Wilkerson led the League in blocks per set during the regular season. Austin held her to one block all match, half her season rate, and made her swing 24 times instead, more attacks than anyone on the court. With the net battle neutralized, the final became a dig-and-transition contest, and that is exactly the contest Austin is built for.
Cruz dug 20 balls in a two-set match. Ten in each set, nearly double her League-#2 season rate, in the biggest match of the year. Brasher hit .565 with 15 kills, above her own League-leading .529 regular season mark, in a championship final. Humana-Paredes played well and it did not matter. Palm Beach’s path to the title ran through Wilkerson’s net presence, and Austin never let it materialize.
Trevor Crabb and Dalhausser Defend the Crown
The men’s final belonged to Palm Beach Passion from the first whistle: 15-10, 15-11 over Chaim Schalk and James Shaw, and a second consecutive AVP League Championship to pair with their second consecutive AVP Cup.
Trevor Crabb played the match of his season when it counted most: 9 kills, zero errors, .750 hitting, 8 digs. His regular season mark was .468. Dalhausser put up 6 blocks in two sets, more than double his League-leading pace. And the full arc deserves its own line: at 46, weeks removed from the calf strain that ended his Manhattan Beach Open early, Dalhausser is now a back-to-back champion in both competitions the League offers.
New York reached the final by shutting down an elite hitter. Palm Beach won it by doing the same thing to them. James Shaw, whose .542 regular season led the entire League in hitting percentage, was held to 2 kills and negative hitting for the match. Schalk fought alone, 13 kills on 24 attacks, and alone was not enough.
Palm Beach’s 2026: the AVP Cup by one match point, and the League Championship by two straight sets. Back-to-back, twice over.
The Upset That Shaped the Weekend
Saturday afternoon produced the result nobody’s bracket had. Chaim Schalk and James Shaw, the #4 seed, beat Andy Benesh and Taylor Crabb, the 7-1 top seed and reigning Manhattan Beach champions, in straight sets, 17-15, 15-13.
The box score shows how close and how real it was. Benesh was excellent: 12 kills on .529 with 3 blocks. But New York solved Taylor Crabb, holding the League’s second-most-efficient hitter to .188, more than 300 points under his season mark, while Schalk hit .455 on a match-high 22 attacks with just one error and Shaw added 8 kills on .462. Four total points of separation across two sets, and the team that had lost once all season was out.
New York Nitro’s run ended in the final, but the arc deserves its own line: 1-5 in July, a locked playoff berth by August, and a championship match in September.
The Quarterfinals That Set It Up
Saturday morning opened with Brooklyn’s answer to the regular season: Lexy Denaburg and Julia Donlin beat Kylie DeBerg and Betsi Flint in three sets, avenging their only 2026 meeting, before falling to Palm Beach in the semifinal. Kelly Cheng and Megan Kraft handled Megan J. Rice and Geena Urango in straight sets, then ran into Brasher and Cruz at full force, 15-8, 15-9. On the men’s side, Schalk and Shaw survived Austin’s Troy Field and Ryan Wilcox in three, ending the League’s steepest late-season climb, and Chase Budinger and Miles Evans swept LA before taking Palm Beach to 19-17 in a semifinal set that was closer than the final would be.
One More Weekend on the Sand
The 2026 AVP League season is complete. The Heritage calendar has one stop left: Laguna Beach, September 18-20, the final AVP event of the year.
The lakefront was loud all weekend, and it has been loud all season, from Belmar to Chicago. Thank you to every fan who packed the sand. See you in Laguna.
Follow it all at avp.com.