The 2026 AVP League Season Opens in Belmar With Two City Rivalries and a Champions’ Rematch
The 2026 AVP League season opens May 30-31 in Belmar, New Jersey. Four teams. Eight duos. Two city rivalries built into the schedule. And in the opening round, the first head-to-head between the only two teams to have ever won an AVP League title.
LA Launch, New York Nitro, San Diego Smash, and Brooklyn Blaze make up the Belmar field. The weekend features a California showdown between LA Launch and San Diego Smash and the first weekend of a back-to-back East Coast rivalry between New York Nitro and Brooklyn Blaze — the two teams meet the following weekend in Aspen again. Belmar is also the first event where the official 2026 AVP League rosters take effect. The Heritage partnerships from Huntington Beach reset. The League begins here.
The matchups for Belmar:
- LA Launch vs New York Nitro
- San Diego Smash vs Brooklyn Blaze
- LA Launch vs San Diego Smash (City Rivalry)
- New York Nitro vs Brooklyn Blaze (City Rivalry)
How to watch: Live broadcasts on CW Saturday from 1:00-3:00 PM ET and CBS Sunday from 1:30-2:30 PM ET, with additional matches streaming on the AVP YouTube Channel.
Round One: 2024 Champions vs 2025 Champions
The opening round delivers the storyline of the weekend. San Diego Smash and Brooklyn Blaze are the only two teams to have ever won an AVP League title — and they meet in the first match.
San Diego Smash won the inaugural 2024 AVP League Championship with Geena Urango, Chase Budinger, and Miles Evans on the roster. All three return for 2026, joined by new women’s partner Megan Rice. Urango is the back-to-back 2024 and 2025 AVP MVP. Budinger and Evans are 2024 Paris Olympians who finished ninth at the Games and won the 2025 Manhattan Beach Open together. Budinger and Evans also reached the final at Huntington Beach two weeks ago, finishing second to eventual champions Andy Benesh and Taylor Crabb.
Brooklyn Blaze won the 2025 League Championship with Lexy Denaburg and Julia Donlin. Denaburg was a three-time AVCA All-American at UCLA. Donlin is the 2023 Manhattan Beach Open Champion who, as the No. 1 seed that year, lost her opener to the No. 32 seed and then won eight straight elimination matches to claim the title. Donlin makes her 2026 debut at Belmar after returning from partial patellar tendon tears. They’re joined on Brooklyn Blaze by AVP League rookies Derek Bradford and Evan Cory, who finished tied for third at Huntington Beach in their first event of the season.
LA Launch vs San Diego Smash: The California Rivalry
The California rivalry has history. In 2025, Hagen Smith and Logan Webber of LA Launch swept Budinger and Evans of San Diego Smash in both of their head-to-head meetings — and both matches went to three sets. Smith and Webber went on to finish as the 2025 AVP League Championship runners-up.
Smith is the 2025 AVP Best Server and 2025 AVP Ambassador of the League who led all men in aces per set in his first AVP League season. Webber reached the 2025 AVP League Championship match alongside Smith. They come into Belmar after finishing ninth at Huntington Beach, where they took Qatar’s Ahmed Tijan and Cherif Younousse — Tokyo 2020 Olympic bronze medalists and current No. 6 ranked team in the world — to three sets in a thrilling second-round match.
Budinger and Evans are the reigning Manhattan Beach Open champions and Huntington Beach finalists. Last year’s rivalry results say LA Launch. This year’s current form says San Diego Smash. This weekend answers the question.
New York Nitro vs Brooklyn Blaze: Back-to-Back Weekends
The East Coast rivalry starts in Belmar and continues the following weekend in Aspen — two consecutive weeks of New York vs Brooklyn to open the League season.
New York Nitro features Chaim Schalk, a 2016 Rio Olympian and two-time AVP Champion who has reached the semifinals at least once in each of his nine AVP seasons with seven different partners. Toni Rodriguez is the 2024 AVP Best Server and 2024 AVP League Champion returning from a dislocated shoulder that ended her 2025 season. Molly Shaw is a two-time AVCA All-American at Grand Canyon University.
Brooklyn Blaze enters as the defending League Champions. Denaburg and Donlin won three straight matches in the League Championships to claim the 2025 title. Bradford and Cory are the rookie partnership who lost their Huntington Beach opener and then ran the contenders bracket — defeating Basey and Hurst, then Field and Wilcox (now the Austin Aces), then Bomgren and Drost, and finally avenging the opening loss with a win over Partain and Shaw to reach the semifinals and a tied-third finish. Bradford stands 6-foot-9 and is 21 years old. Cory finished the 2025 AVP season with a 21-3 match record.
New Faces, New Partnerships
Belmar is the first AVP League event for two new women’s pairings and two rookie partnerships.
Urango and Rice partner together for the first time at a League event. Rice played for the New York Nitro in 2025. The two won a NORCECA gold medal together in 2025. Toni Rodriguez and Molly Shaw also debut as a new partnership at the League level. Both pairings played Huntington Beach together as Heritage partnerships — Rodriguez and Shaw finished ninth, Urango and Rice finished tied for 13th.
Maddie Anderson and Alaina Chacon are former Florida State teammates who reunited as professionals and qualified for the League at the third and final qualifier as the 8-seed, sweeping all four opponents including the first, third, and fifth seeds. Anderson’s 123 wins set the FSU program record. Chacon finished her FSU career second in dual match wins with 100. The pair skipped Huntington Beach to compete at the Beach Pro Tour Challenge Nuvali in the Philippines, where they entered as the 10-seed and finished second.
One roster note for Belmar specifically: The New York Nitro roster features two real-life partnerships — Chaim Schalk and Toni Rodriguez are engaged, and Molly and James Shaw are married. James Shaw will not play in Belmar due to a scheduling conflict. Theo Brunner will sub in for the weekend alongside Schalk. Brunner is a four-time AVP Champion and four-time AVP Best Blocker.
How to Watch
Saturday, May 30 (Eastern Time)
- 1:00 PM — Women: LA Launch vs San Diego Smash (CW)
- 2:00 PM — Men: LA Launch vs San Diego Smash (CW)
- 3:00 PM — Women: New York Nitro vs Brooklyn Blaze (YouTube)
- 4:00 PM — Men: New York Nitro vs Brooklyn Blaze (YouTube)
Sunday, May 31 (Eastern Time)
- 1:30 PM — Women: LA Launch vs New York Nitro (CBS)
- 2:30 PM — Men: LA Launch vs New York Nitro (YouTube)
- 3:30 PM — Women: Brooklyn Blaze vs San Diego Smash (YouTube)
- 4:30 PM — Men: Brooklyn Blaze vs San Diego Smash (YouTube)
All YouTube matches stream on the AVP YouTube Channel.
Event Details
The 2026 AVP Belmar event runs May 30-31 in Belmar, New Jersey. 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.
The Heritage partnerships are over. The League rosters take effect at Belmar. The season starts here.