If you looked at the final results of the AVP New York City Open, you might assume that it had simply been an event dominated by the top-ranked teams, with Kerri Walsh Jennings and April Ross and Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena predictably winning the titles, but a closer look shows that it was a tournament with lots of excitement and surprises.

Here’s what we learned at the AVP NYC:

Sara Hughes and Kelly Claes are even more legit than we thought.

This pair of USC beach volleyball players and reigning NCAA champions once again entered the AVP New York City Open through the qualifier and stormed their way to a third-place finish. Last year, they defeated Ross and Jennifer Fopma to earn that third; this year they took out Geena Urango and Angela Bensend, Kelley Larsen and Betsi Flint and Emily Day and Amanda Dowdy on their way to the semifinals. The two matches they lost were both close—to Lane Carico and Summer Ross 16-21, 21-15, 16-14 and to April Ross and Walsh Jennings, arguably the best team in the world, 21-16, 21-18.



Don’t worry, if you missed them in action in New York, Hughes and Claes will be back for the AVP San Francisco Open this week.

Sean Rosenthal is far from finished.

Rosenthal has had a difficult couple of years. After breaking up with Jake Gibb following the London Olympics, he paired with Phil Dalhausser, but instead of their partnership being the juggernaut pairing it was predicted to be, their finishes were up and down and both athletes struggled with injuries. Next, Rosenthal picked up Theo Brunner, but that partnership dissolved earlier this year after Rosenthal was forced to sit out a few tournaments due to injury and in the meantime Brunner started a new partnership with Billy Allen.

Rosenthal returned to competition for the first time since April at the AVP NYC, entering the tournament with Jeremy Casebeer. The duo lost in the second round to Taylor and Trevor Crabb, but then rallied and advanced to the final where they fell to Dalhausser and Lucena to finish second.

Dana Fiume made her hometown crowd proud.

The local athlete in the women’s qualifier with the best chance of making the main draw, Fiume likely felt a little bit of pressure to do well. If she did, she did a good job of hiding it, however, dominating both of her qualifier matches with partner Amanda Wiggins and advancing to the main draw where the duo kicked things off with a bang, defeating Emily Day and Jen Kessy in three sets. Fiume and Wiggins finished with a ninth, matching their career high.

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AVP NYC, a preview of AVP SF.

The New York event featured an almost full-strength main draw. This week in San Francisco, however, with no FIVB event to draw the top players overseas, the men’s and women’s fields will be missing only one pair each—John Hyden and Tri Bourne on the men’s side and Lauren Fendrick and Brooke Sweat on the women’s. The San Fran stop will also feature a bevy of new partnerships, including Ryan Doherty and Ty Tramblie, Brad Keenan and Todd Rogers, Emily Day and Brittany Hochevar and Jen Fopma and Jen Kessy.