HOLLY STEIN photos/AVP
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Business have mixed reaction to tour
While food and shopping venues at the AVP Bob’s Stores Boston Open catered to volleyball fans, other Marina Bay businesses were pretty much left in the cold. Those attending the men’s and women’s volleyball matches were not spending much time at Marina Bay restaurants and shops either. More ...
Volleyball at Marina Bay proves to be a hit The AVP came as advertised - a mixture of athletics and entertainment. Sports fans saw talented, world-class athletes pull off spectacular moves and it seems fair to say, judging by the reaction to the play on the courts, and to the entertainment nearly everywhere, that there was a healthy amount of crossover: Sports fans didn’t begrudge the fun, and fun-lovers didn’t boycott the matches. More ...
Promoters hope the tour returns to Quincy in 2008 The return of the AVP Crocs Tour to Marina Bay may not be quite that iron-clad, but those who run the tour and promoted the first Bob’s Stores Boston Open didn’t seem to have much doubt that the tournament will return to Quincy in 2008. More ...
Branagh-Youngs upset May-WalshIn a stunning upset, the team of Nicole Branagh and Elaine Youngs defeated Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor, making the Boston Open one of the most exciting AVP events this year. More ...
Dalhausser, Rogers claim men’s title at OpenThe Boston Open men’s title was decided Saturday night, Aug. 18, at Marina Bay in Quincy, with the team of Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers coming out on top, 21-16, 21-12, over the tournament’s eighth seeds, Matt Fuerbringer and Casey Jennings. Dalhausser and Rogers took 49 minutes to take home their eighth title of the year, the most of any men’s team on tour. More ...
Women's Match Results: May-Treanor and Walsh soarMisty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh, the No. 1 team on the AVP Crocs Tour, won both their matches in Friday’s Boston Open to advance to today’s winner’s bracket quarterfinal round against No. 4 seed Tyra Turner and Rachel Wacholder. More ...
Men's Match Results: Dalhausser, Rogers
hold off threat
Photos from Aug. 17 Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers looked every bit unbeatable on Friday, Aug. 17, defeating Adam Jewell and Jose Loiola. More ...
The Fontana of youth
Don’t tell Barbra Fontana that the AVP is geared toward a younger crowd. Fontana, who is the oldest women’s player in the AVP at 41 years old, is still very much a factor on the Crocs Cup Tour. She and partner Denisse DeNecochea have placed third seven times this season and advanced to last night’s third round against Annett Davis and Jenny Johnson Jordan.
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Morning glory for kids at Open
It's summer, it's warm and it's sunny. So it's no surprise that the kids were out in force at the AVP Boston Open at Marina Bay Friday. More than half of the morning crowd consisted of children under high school age, including large groups from summer camps, schools and the Weymouth Recreation Department.
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Matches bring reunions
Scituate High School graduate Greg Ball returns home as part of the public relations and promotions team for the AVP tour, and the tour reunites North Quincy High School girls volleyball coach Kerry Ginty with her college teammate and now pro volleyball player, Jenelle Koester. More ...
Locals, others compete in qualifying rounds | Photos from Qualifying Rounds
Matt Isaacs, a New Jersey transplant who lives in Randolph, and Chad Jones, a California-bred Quincy resident, both tried to get into the main draw of the AVP Crocs Tour’s Boston Open via the qualifying tournament at Marina Bay on Thursday, Aug. 16. Neither survived the first round, but neither considered the experience anything short of time very well spent. More ...
The unglamorous side of pro volleyball Forty-nine men’s teams and 23 women’s teams spent Thursday competing for four slots in each side of the draw. The players all had to pay their way to the tournament, put themselves up, and foot their share of a $100 per team entry fee. Some players were finished for the day, and for the tournament, before 9 a.m. Most had been eliminated by lunchtime. More ...
The pros mingle with fans, amateur players in Boston
The AVP Crocs Tour settles at Marina Bay on Friday, Aug. 17, but the pros brought the sand and nets to Faneuil Hall on Thursday, Aug. 16, mingling with fans and amateur players.
The event featured tour players including Casey Jennings, Mark Williams and “Team Gorgeous,” Suzanne Stonebarger and Michelle More, and AVP MC Chris “Geeter” McGee.
Plenty of time was devoted to allowing fans to play against the pros, some displaying considerable talent while others just out having fun.
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It's all about the experience
The vibe is an important part of the AVP experience. Technically, the volleyball itself is the main attraction, although organizers admit the whole “girls-in-bikinis” angle is a huge selling point. But he says that those who turn out expecting a beauty pageant are quickly struck by the sheer athleticism of the beach game. More ...
Fenway Sports group allows Red Sox owners to play the fieldDiversification was the buzzword when the owners of the Red Sox formed the Fenway Sports Group in 2004, and part of the plan was jumping into other sports ventures, like professional volleyball. Though much of the group's reach has been in baseball-related ventures, the AVP tour provided a way to make money outside the reach of Major League Baseball. Here's a business take on how the Red Sox organization is involved in volleyball. More ...
The making of AVP stadium
Workers have dropped in 2,200 tons of sand and built the bleachers, transforming the Waterworks nightclub parking lot into what will be a premiere location for the next stop along the AVP tour. For the people who set up the tour, no sooner do they arrive at one location, than they are preparing for the next. So while Quincy's Marina Bay is being transformed, planners already have their sights on the next stop: Brooklyn, N.Y. The same kind of quick turnaround allowed the tour to be in California just last week. More ...
Marina Bay is almost ready for the crowdsConstruction continued on the portable stadium and outside courts that will play host to the country's top male and female beach volleyball pros from Thursday through Sunday, when the AVP Crocs Tour stages its first Bob's Stores Boston Open at Marina Bay. The main order of business today was to be the delivery and erection of corporate and sponsor tents and signs. By the time fans arrive for Friday morning's first main-draw matches, the site will look more like volleyball nirvana. More ...
What is the Crocs Cup and how did they get involved with beach volleyball?
The Crocs Cup? What's that? The Crocs Cup works like the NEXTEL Cup’s Chase and the PGA’s FedEx Cup, with teams accruing points over the course of the season. We offer you a breakdown of the points system and how the shoemaker became the tour's sponsor. More ...
Summer school: Students to get close look at volleyball pros
They might hold the unglamorous jobs of ball shaggers and scorecard flippers, but the Quincy and North Quincy high school volleyball programs should turn out to be beneficiaries from the AVP Crocs Tour’s stop at Marina Bay this week. More ...
Quincy is hoping that national TV exposure from volleyball tourney will have long-term impact
When NBC’s cameras fade from close-up beach volleyball action to that panorama shot of Marina Bay, viewers in living rooms across the country are likely to wonder: where’s that? Tourism and business leaders here are hopeful that national television exposure for Quincy during this weekend’s AVP Bob’s Stores Open will add to the city’s destination appeal. More ...
Burgeoning AVP Crocs pro beach volleyball tour graces Marina Bay
Leonard Armato, CEO and commissioner of the Association of Volleyball Professionals, and Fenway Sports Group are in the business of identifying growth potential for sports that traditionalists might consider outside the mainstream. And if it involves a partnership that might not seem conventional, so be it - just as long as those who come out to watch have a good time, and find themselves anxious for the next time they can catch some world-class athletic competition, some rays and perhaps the occasional eyeful of eye candy. More ...
The top players rival athletes from all sports
Sometimes lost in all the fun-in-the-sun aura that surrounds a pro beach volleyball tournament is the fact that spectators are watching some the finest athletes in the world. While they may not get the exposure their professional counterparts in sports such as baseball, football, hockey and basketball command, pro volleyball players can rival any other athletes when it comes to fitness. That's why volleyball's Dandy Dozen -- the top 12 players on the circuit -- are among the best athletes on the planet. More ...
Top Men's Team: Rogers and Dalhausser have a strategy
As much as they’d like to finish first on the AVP tour, Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser are trying to pile up points on the international beach volleyball circuit to play in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, so they skipped Chicago to play in Austria. That's fine with a lot of the other players: They won four straight tournaments as a first-year team at the start of last season, which they closed by winning the last three events of the year. They took the lead in the 2007 standings by winning five of the first six Crocs Cup stops. More ...
Top Women's Team are as good as it gets
Kerri Walsh and partner Misty May-Treanor are as good as it gets. Think the Patriots of 2001-04, the Cowboys of the 1990s, the 49ers of the ‘80s and the Steelers of the ’70s all rolled into one. Heck, throw in those dynastic Celtics, Yankees and Canadiens teams, too, and you have an idea of how Walsh, 29, and May-Treanor, 30, have towered over their sport like some tanned, toned Colossus. More ...
Hall of famer Karch Kiraly busier than ever
Name it, and Karch Kiraly has won it and done it on a volleyball court, whether for free or for prize money, indoors on a hard court or outdoors on sand.
Fans who attend the AVP Bob's Stores Boston Open tournament at Marina Bay will have one more chance to say they saw the three-time Olympic gold medalist, who's still competing six years after his enshrinement in the Volleyball Hall of Fame.
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