Fourth graders Nora Halloran and Ava Shiels jumped up and down as they waited in line with their parents for the merchandise tent Sunday morning at the American Volleyball Professionals Chicago Open on Oak Street Beach.
The girls, both 9, have just joined the volleyball team at St. Clement School in Lincoln Park and they hoped to learn a thing or two from the world-class competitors. Halloran said she’s keen to improve her serve, while Shiels wants to get more power behind her hits.
“I’m really excited to watch and get little tips and tricks,” Halloran said as the first match between ninth-place Paris finishers Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss and fifth-place Paris finishers Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes kicked off at 8:30 a.m.
While the sun beamed down and Lake Michigan showed off its best sparkle, crowds of tourists, locals and fans filled the nearly sold-out temporary grandstands, gathered in a makeshift beer garden, laid towels on the sand and peered over the grandstand fences.
Amar Shah, who has been playing volleyball since high school, was also there to improve his skills. The 30-year-old West Town resident stopped by before his weekly pickup league.
“How do they approach the game mentally? What are their attack points? What’s the communication like between the partners?” he said. “If I can learn something from today, that’s a win for me.”
Kloth and Nuss lost to 2024 Olympic silver medalists Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson in Sunday afternoon’s women’s final.
The Canadians, who clinched a win against Toni Rodriguez and Geena Urango in a semifinal match earlier Sunday, first played together in the 2022 Chicago Open. They lost in the finals of the 2022 and 2023 tournaments, so this win is particularly sentimental, they said.
“We love this tournament,” Humana-Paredes told the Tribune after the final. “We’ve gotten to play such amazing teams every final and had such great battles. It feels good to win this one.”
Beach volleyball returns to Chicago on Labor Day weekend — and features Olympic medalists
Steve Stenberg, 59, has traveled from Seattle for the last four Chicago Opens. He was most excited to see Taylor Crabb and Taylor Sanders clinch a spot in the men’s final after an uphill battle out of the contender’s bracket yesterday. The longtime friends and partners beat Paris Olympians Chase Budinger and Miles Evans in Sunday’s first men’s semifinal match.
Crabb and Sanders were set to play Andy Benesh and Miles Partain in the men’s final late Sunday afternoon. Benesh and Partain made history earlier this summer as the youngest U.S. men’s beach volleyball team in Olympic history. They earned their spot in the finals by beating Tim Bomgren and Troy Field earlier Sunday.
The winners of the women’s and men’s finals will be welcomed into the AVP league, which has eight regular season games and will conclude with a championship match Nov. 9 and 10 in Los Angeles.
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