Gibb and Crabb finish the grind with AVP Chicago win
Jake Gibb and Taylor Crabb won the AVP Gold Series Championships in Chicago. In a one-sided final they beat Chaim Schalk and Tim Bomgren who had before upset top-seeded Phil “The Beast” Dalhausser and Nick “The Quick” Lucena. A very strong net performance by Gibb was enough for the Seattle champions to win in two sets (21:15, 21:17) and to claim their second AVP title in 2018. Jake Gibb who finished the final with a big block after the final:
“This year has been a grind. Mentally it was a long season. But Chicago is really a huge win. I am so excited.”
Before second-seeded Gibb/Crabb had already faced elimination in a tough semifinal against Roberto Rodriguez and Ed Ratledge. In the second set Rodriguez/Ratledge had match point when beach volleyball veteran Ed Ratledge first produced a foot fault and then left a skyball from Crabb drop on the line to lose the second set. The third set was then an easy win for Gibb/Crabb (15:5).
On the women’s side it was Summer Ross and Sara Hughes as well as “A-team” April Ross and Alix Klineman who went straight through the winner’s bracket to the final without losing a match. Just as on the men’s side, the final was a two-setter. Although being a new team this season, April Ross and Alix Klineman posted a 25:23, 21:16 win to claim their third AVP title together.
We are proud that Beach Volleyball Space has just been officially listed as Top Volleyball Blog. Beach Volleyball Space is “an impressive blog with high quality and useful content on Volleyball.” We consider this as motivation to further develop Beach Volleyball Space into a resource and community for all things beach volleyball. If you have any feedback or inspiration, please let us know in the comment section below.
