ANAHEIM — The New York Nitro secured a share of first place in the AVP league after splitting its matches on Sunday. Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes bounced back from a loss on Saturday to beat the Austin Aces’ female pairing.
The Aces men, though, came through with a three-set victory over the Nitro to retain a one-game advantage over the San Diego Smash for the final spot in the Championship.
The Smash were in last place heading into Weekend 7 at the Honda Center, but went 3-1 — their only loss coming in three sets to the Palm Beach Passion women — to keep their postseason hopes alive.
The fight for fourth place between the Smash, Aces and LA Launch will be decided next weekend in Dallas.
The Smash built a 14-10 lead in the third set, but dropped four consecutive match points. Melissa Humana-Paredes’s kill tied the score at 14, forcing a win-by-two scenario.
“I think Melissa just made a decision that she was going to take over that game,” Brandie Wilkerson, Paredes’s teammate, said.
That may be true, but it was Wilkerson’s words that gave Paredes the confidence to come through with another kill to set up their own match point.
Just before they went on that run, Paredes looked at Wilkerson and said, “Nothing is working, what do we do?”
“Just ball out,” Wilkerson replied, smoothly.
The next shot from Wilkerson decided the outcome as they beat the Smash (15-10, 12-15, 16-14).
Chase Budinger and Miles Evans stayed focused throughout the longest set of the season, outlasting the Palm Beach Passion men 21-19 in the first frame. Tied at 19, Budinger’s shot nestled into the left side of the court. He, then, produced an ace on a soft serve that died in front of Phil Dalhausser’s feet.
The second set wasn’t nearly as long as the Smash jumped out to a 9-3 lead. They held set point at 14-8, when Dalhausser met Budinger at the net, blocking his shot. It was originally called out, but on replay the ball skimmed the line.
“Thankfully, we had a couple-point lead,” Evans said. “We were pretty relaxed out there.”
The Smash regrouped to win the match on the following point. The victory (21-19, 15-10) kept them alive in the race for the fourth spot in the championship.
A smile crept onto Kelly Cheng’s face. She couldn’t erase it if she tried. Not after she had put perfect spin on the ball, nor placed it so precisely. In the second set, Cheng returned an Aces’ hit that traversed the entire court, laying it just inside the opposite boundary from which it came from.
“She’s just unstoppable,” Sara Hughes said about Cheng, her teammate. “It’s one of those feelings where you could just put up anything, and you know she’s gonna hit it.”
Cheng had all the tricks on Sunday. Her shot to win the first set was too quick for Taryn Kloth’s instincts. She had a kill that broke a 9-9 tie in the second set. She followed that up with a shot that landed out of Kristen Nuss’s reach. Another kill from Cheng set up match point, before her ace won the match for the Nitro (15-10, 15-11).
Nitro’s Taylor Sander and Taylor Crabb had the Aces looking silly during the first set. They switched between fastballs and soft lobs, changing serve tactics constantly. Then, for set point, Sander launched a sky-ball, which Paul Lotman returned, but right into Crabb’s block.
“They were firing on all cylinders,” Billy Allen of the Aces, said. “We couldn’t really touch them.”
Matters got worse, it seemed, when Lotman “heard a pop in his knee.” Play stopped for five minutes before Lotman returned.
“I think it helped us in a way,” Lotman said, “like an extended timeout just to kind of center myself.”
The Aces went on to win the third set 15-13, a kill from Lotman sealing it. (7-15, 15-11, 15-13).
Although the Aces’ women’s duo lost to the Nitro, the men’s win means they control their destiny heading into the final weekend of matches.
The Aces won’t face the Smash in Dallas, but if they take care of business in games against the Dallas Dream and the LA Launch, they’ll earn a trip to the Championship, which will be held Nov. 9-10 at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson.
