Here’s the Playoff Picture.
The 2026 AVP League has reached its midpoint. Four events done, four to go. Belmar, Aspen, Miami, and Las Vegas are in the books. Los Angeles, Central Park, East Hampton, and Dallas are still to come.
On the men’s side, one pair has clinched a playoff spot. Three more are in strong position. Four teams are still alive and fighting to avoid the bottom two spots that miss the playoffs entirely. The women’s race has taken a different shape — five teams tied at exactly 50%, competing for four remaining spots.
Here’s where every team in the 2026 AVP League stands.
The Races
The 2026 AVP League has two parallel races running through the same eight events.
AVP League Championships. Each team fields a men’s pair and a women’s pair. The top six pairs per gender qualify for the 2026 AVP League Championships in Chicago. The 1st and 2nd seeds in each gender receive byes into the semifinals; the 3rd through 6th seeds play in the quarterfinals. The bottom two per gender miss the postseason.
The AVP Cup. One trophy, awarded to the city team with the highest combined men’s and women’s win percentage across the regular season.
The AVP Cup Race
Palm Beach Passion leads the combined AVP Cup standings at 75% (9-3). San Diego Smash is also at 75% (3-1) but with only one event played to Palm Beach’s three. Miami Mayhem and Dallas Dream sit at 62.5%. Austin Aces is at 50%. LA Launch and Brooklyn Blaze are both at 37.5%. New York Nitro is at 16.7%.
How Much Road Each Team Has Left
The 2026 AVP League season is not symmetric. Teams have very different amounts of road remaining:
- One event left (2 matches per gender): New York Nitro and Palm Beach Passion (Central Park only)
- Two events left (4 matches per gender): LA Launch, Brooklyn Blaze, Miami Mayhem, Dallas Dream
- Three events left (6 matches per gender): San Diego Smash and Austin Aces
Austin Aces sits at 50% combined despite a 0-2 men’s start because they have six matches still to come. San Diego Smash sits tied for the top of the Cup standings without having played since Belmar. For Palm Beach and New York Nitro, the road is short — every match at Central Park weighs more.
Vegas’s Biggest Movers
Three teams moved the most at Vegas. Palm Beach Passion vaulted to the top of the Cup standings and clinched their men’s playoff spot. Dallas Dream’s men swept their two matches and climbed into a tie for #3-4 on the men’s standings. LA Launch went 0-4 across both genders and dropped to a tie for #6 on the Cup standings.
The Men’s Playoff Picture
One team has clinched. Three more are in strong position. Four teams are fighting to avoid the bottom two spots.
Clinched: Palm Beach Passion (Trevor Crabb and Phil Dalhausser). 5-1 across four events, 13 match points. The first AVP League pair to mathematically clinch a 2026 playoff spot. With one event remaining and a worst-case finish of 5-3 (62.5%), no scenario produces six teams above them. Phil Dalhausser leads the league in blocks per set (1.643) — a full one-tenth of a block per set clear of any other blocker.
Likely to clinch soon: Miami Mayhem (Taylor Crabb and Andy Benesh, 3-1) and Dallas Dream (Paul Lotman and Miles Partain, 3-1). Each pair needs just two wins across their remaining four matches to clinch. Both teams have shown they can produce — Taylor Crabb and Benesh won the Heritage event at Huntington Beach to open the season, and Lotman and Partain swept their two Vegas matches to vault into a tie for #3-4 on the men’s standings. Taylor Crabb leads the league in both hitting percentage (.557) and digs per set (4.78) — the only player at either stat’s top spot.
Strong position with the most runway: San Diego Smash (Chase Budinger and Miles Evans). 2-0 through one event. They need to win three of their six remaining matches to clinch — a higher bar than Miami’s or Dallas’s two of four, but they also have six matches to make it happen. Their story is upside, not proximity to clinching. With three events still to play, San Diego carries the highest ceiling of any team in the field. Chase Budinger leads the league in aces per set (1.167).
Fighting for the final spots. Four teams are still alive and competing for the remaining two playoff spots. Two of them will make it. Two will miss.
- LA Launch (Hagen Smith and Logan Webber, 1-3). Need to win most of their remaining matches to stay in the mix. They play Brooklyn Blaze in Los Angeles next weekend in a direct bubble fight. Hagen Smith sits #2 in the league in aces per set (1.1). Logan Webber sits #2 in blocks per set (1.5).
- Brooklyn Blaze (Derek Bradford and Evan Cory, 1-3). Same math as LA. The Long Beach match against LA Launch will move one of them closer to safety and the other closer to elimination.
- Austin Aces (Troy Field and Ryan Wilcox, 0-2). Need to start winning starting at Central Park. They have the most matches remaining among the men’s bubble teams — six total across the final three events — which gives them the runway to recover.
- New York Nitro (Chaim Schalk and James Shaw, 1-5). Their only AVP League win came at Belmar when Theo Brunner subbed for James Shaw. Schalk and James Shaw, as the actual New York Nitro partnership, are 0-4 across Aspen and Vegas — all four losses in three sets.
The Women’s Playoff Picture
The race is in the middle. Two teams have built cushion. Five are tied for the four remaining spots. One is fighting to avoid the bottom two.
The logjam: Five teams at exactly 50%. Miami Mayhem (Kelly Cheng and Megan Kraft), LA Launch (Maddie Anderson and Alaina Chacon), Brooklyn Blaze (Lexy Denaburg and Julia Donlin), San Diego Smash (Megan Rice and Geena Urango), and Dallas Dream (Kylie DeBerg and Betsi Flint) are all at exactly 50%. Five teams competing for the remaining four playoff spots. Head-to-head results in the final four weekends will sort this. Four of the five (every team except San Diego Smash) meet at Long Beach next weekend, making it the marquee bubble event of the women’s season.
Within the logjam, four players sit at the top of the individual stat leaderboards. Megan Rice leads the league in blocks per set (1.2). Geena Urango leads in hitting percentage (.579). Alaina Chacon leads in digs per set (7.42). Maddie Anderson leads in aces per set (1.000).
In strong position: Palm Beach Passion (Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson, 4-2). After going 2-0 at Aspen, they dropped to 0-2 at Miami — where Melissa Humana-Paredes pulled out of the third set of the Dallas Dream match with a hip injury, and Devanne Sours filled in on Saturday alongside Wilkerson. At Vegas, with Humana-Paredes still out, Savvy Cory (formerly Savvy Simo) subbed in and went 2-0 alongside Wilkerson. The pair sits at #2 in the women’s standings. Brandie Wilkerson sits #2 in the league in blocks per set (1.188).
Perfect through their debut: Austin Aces (Taryn Brasher and Kristen Cruz, 2-0). Brasher and Cruz opened their AVP League season with two wins at Miami and sit at #1 in the women’s standings. They have six matches still to play across three events, meaning they’re mathematically vulnerable to a slip. Kristen Cruz sits #2 in the league in digs per set (7.00).
New York Nitro: Final Stand at Central Park
Both New York Nitro pairs sit 1-5 with two matches remaining — both at home in Central Park on July 18-19, against San Diego Smash and Austin Aces.
The women got their first AVP League win at Vegas, sweeping Dallas Dream 15-7, 15-13. The men’s only AVP League win came at Belmar when Theo Brunner subbed for James Shaw.
The math is the same for both: win both Central Park matches AND get significant help from other results. Their home crowd will see whether the season ends with a fight or a fade.
What’s Next
The halfway point is settled. Four events remain to sort everything else. Los Angeles opens the second half next weekend at Long Beach.
Follow the race to the playoffs at avp.com/league.