Kristen Nuss was coated in sand, dulling her neon two-piece swimsuit. A white lei hung round her neck as she tried to steadiness her champion’s plaque awkwardly in a single hand.
“This thing is heavy,” she stated, “my arm is getting sore.”
Regardless of her and accomplice Taryn Brasher repeating as AVP Manhattan Seaside Open champions — grinding out a 15-21, 21-18, 15-13 victory over former USC standouts Megan Kraft and Terese Cannon — on Sunday, the burden of each the {hardware} and the title wasn’t misplaced on Nuss.
“This is Wimbledon,” Nuss stated. “It’s the granddaddy of them all. My mom always said she wanted me to play at Wimbledon. … This is definitely one of the most coveted trophies right here.”
Companions since 2021, Nuss and Brasher have been greeted with a roar earlier than the primary serve. On the opposite facet of the web, Kraft and Cannon appeared to be the underdogs to the Paris Olympians.
However as the previous Trojan duo snatched the opening set, followers pressed shoulder to shoulder alongside the railings and bleachers, pulled into the potential of a rally from the defending title-holders.
Kraft’s heavy serve and Cannon’s lengthy attain on the web gave them the primary recreation at 21-15. In the course of the changeover between video games, Brasher and Nuss zeroed in on the cracks by serving collectively and passing cleaner.
“We don’t like first sets,” Nuss joked. “That is something we’ve learned this year especially … we should just not play the first set. But we know we can battle back no matter what.”
Kristen Nuss dives for a ball throughout the girls’s championship match on the Manhattan Seaside Open on Sunday.
(Katelyn Mulcahy / For The Instances)
Down three factors within the second set, Nuss and Brasher rallied and took a 21-18 win. And within the third set, with the groups even at 5, Nuss — the smallest participant on the sand — swung above her dimension, disguising her photographs by glancing a technique and spiking the ball the opposite.
“There is nothing — no deficit — that is going to scare Kristen,” Brasher stated.
Beneath the scorching Manhattan Seaside solar, followers stayed jammed alongside the railings. However the second ultimate wouldn’t observe the identical fairytale ending.
For Phil Dalhausser and Trevor Crabb, this yr’s Manhattan Seaside Open doubled as each a curtain name and an opportunity to win a title.
Miles Evans, left, and Chase Budinger have a good time after profitable the Manhattan Seaside Open males’s title Sunday.
(Katelyn Mulcahy/For The Instances)
For the previous, it was the ultimate time he’d ever tower over California sand — a four-time Olympian, Worldwide Volleyball Corridor of Famer and seven-time Manhattan Seaside Open champion competing within the second-to-last AVP occasion of his profession. Crabb entered the weekend seeking to win the event for the second straight yr.
However Chase Budinger and Miles Evans had different plans, racing via the ultimate and burying the storybook ending 21-19, 21-16 to clinch the lads’s title.
Budinger and Evans tipped their caps to Dalhausser — recognizing the veteran who’s a legend within the sport.
There it’s. Chase Budinger and Miles Evans have claimed their first ever Manhattan Seaside Open championship.
They defeat veterans Phil Dalhausser and Trevor Crabb in straight units, 21-19, 21-16. pic.twitter.com/ApFA0Mf3sV
— Ira Gorawara (@IraGorawara) August 17, 2025
“[Dalhausser] is the best player to ever play the game,” Budinger stated. “So every time I step on the court playing against him, I really try to cherish those times with him — those memories, those battles — because he’s such an unbelievable player.”
Dripping in champagne and holding his plaque, Evans stated the triumph was validation for all of the work the duo has put in to interrupt via since pairing up in 2023.
“Hopefully this is the beginning of great things for us,” he stated.
