It’s only the first day of 2018, but the new professional beach volleyball season is already underway. The first FIVB tournament of the year is this week in The Hague, Netherlands, and 11 American beach volleyball teams are competing. 

Here’s everything you need to know about the 2018 professional beach volleyball season.

AVP Returns To All Eight 2017 Host Cities

The AVP released its schedule at the end of November, much earlier than in past years. In 2018, the domestic beach volleyball tour will return to the same eight cities where it stopped in 2017, in the exact same order. 

The Huntington Beach Open kicks things off May 3-6, and the tour concludes over Labor Day weekend in Chicago for the tour championships. 

2018 AVP Schedule

May 3-6: Huntington Beach Open

May 17-20: Austin Open

June 7-10: New York City Open

June 21-24: Seattle Open

July 5-8: San Francisco Open

July 26-29: Hermosa Beach Open

August 16-19: Manhattan Beach Open

August 30-September 2: AVP Championships in Chicago

A Jam-Packed Year Of FIVB Events

The 2018 international beach volleyball schedule starts on the first of the year with the Dela Beach Open Four Star event at an indoor facility in The Hague. 

In total, the FIVB is hosting 38 tournaments this year: three Swatch Major Series five-star events, 11 four-star events with $300,000 purses, four three-star tournaments, 19 one- and two-star developmental events, as well as the $800,000 Swatch World Tour Finals in Hamburg, Germany, to mark the end of the season.

Athletes from the top 10-ranked teams per gender per the FIVB World Rankings at 30 days before an event are not allowed to take part in one- and two-star tournaments; however, this rule does not apply to teams from the tournament’s host country.

There are two FIVB events in the USA this year — the Fort Lauderdale Major (February 27-March 4) and the Huntington beach Four Star (May 2-6) — and the Huntington Beach Four Star is the same weekend as the AVP Huntington Beach Open, NCAA beach volleyball championships in Gulf Shores, Alabama, and the NCAA men’s volleyball championships at UCLA.

2018 FIVB Beach Volleyball Schedule

January 1-7: Dela Beach Open Four Star, The Hague, Netherlands

February 1-4: Shepparton One Star, Australia

February 20-24: Kish Island Three Star, Iran (men only)

February 27-March 4: Fort Lauderdale Major Five Star, USA

March 6-10: Doha Four Star, Qatar (men only)

March 14-17: Oman One Star (men only)

March 15-18: Aalsmeer One Star, Netherlands (men only)

April 8-11: Satun One Star, Thailand

April 18-22: Xiamen Four Star, China

April 26-29: Langkawi One Star, Malaysia

May 2-6: Huntington Beach Four Star, USA

May 2-6: Mersin Three Star, Turkey

May 3-6: Manila One Star, Philippines

May 4-7: Nanjing Two Star, China (women only)

May 9-12: Tuan Chau Island One Star, Vietnam (women only)

May 9-13: Lucerne Three Star, Switzerland

May 10-13: Bangkok One Star, Thailand

May 16-20: Itapema Four Star, Brazil

May 17-20: Aydin One Star, Turkey

May 23-27: Yangzhou Four Star, China

May 31-June 3: Jinjang Two Star, China

June 14-17: Monaco One Star (women only)

June 20-24: Ostrava Four Star, Czech Republic

June 21-24: Singapore Two Star

June 22-25: Nantong Two Star, China (women only)

June 27-July 1: Poland Four Star

June 28-July 1: Alanya One Star, Turkey

July 4-8: Espinho Four Star, Portugal

July 10-15: Gstaad Major Five Star, Switzerland

July 12-15: Daegu One Star, Korea (women only)

July 18-21: Ulsan One Star, Korea (women only)

July 25-29: Agadir Three Star, Morocco

July 25-29: Tokyo Four Star, Japan

July 26-29: Samsun One Star, Turkey

July 31-August 5: Vienna Major Five Star, Austria

August 2-5: Kochi One Star, India

August 8-12: Moscow Four Star, Russia

August 14-19: World Tour Finals, Hamburg, Germany

AVP/FIVB Conflicts

Only one AVP tournament (the championships in Chicago) does not conflict with a four- or five-star FIVB event.

Huntington Beach Four Star and AVP Huntington Beach Open

Itapema Four Star and AVP Austin Open

Ostrava Four Star and AVP Seattle Open

Espinho Four Star and AVP San Francisco Open

Tokyo Four Star and AVP Hermosa Beach Open

World Tour Finals and Manhattan Beach Open

FIVB Dela Beach Open Kicks Off The 2018 Season

The $300,000 Dela Beach Open in The Hague, January 1-8, marks the official start of the new beach volleyball season. 

Eleven American beach volleyball teams have entered the tournament. On the men’s side, Billy Allen/Ryan Doherty and Casey Patterson/Stafford Slick made the main draw, as the No. 9 seed and No. 16 seed, respectively. 

Billy Kolinske/Miles Evans are the No. 3 seed in the qualifier, while Trevor Crabb/Sean Rosenthal earned the qualifier’s No. 4 seed. Jeremy Casebeer and Reid Priddy round out the American contingent in the men’s tournament as the No. 31 seed in the qualifier. The Dela Beach Open event will be Priddy’s first FIVB beach volleyball tournament since making the transition from the indoor national team to the beach after the 2016 Olympics.

Three women’s teams made the Dela Beach Open main draw: No. 3-seeded Brooke Sweat/Summer Ross, No. 6-seeded Kelly Claes/Sara Hughes, and No. 11-seeded Lauren Fendrick/Karissa Cook.

Betsi Flint/Kelley Larson, Emily Day/Brittany Hochevar, and Alix Klineman/April Ross will have to play each other in the country quota to determine which team get into the qualifier. This will be the competition debut for Klineman and Ross, who announced their partnership in November.

The Obligatory Partnership Rundown

Since the end of the 2017 season, there have been plenty of partnership breakups, swaps, and new unions. 

Here’s the rundown:

Who’s Staying Together?

Brooke Sweat/Summer Ross

Of all the American women’s pairs, Sweat/Ross had the most successful season on the FIVB tour in 2017. The pair enters 2018 ranked seventh in the world after winning a silver medal at the Moscow Three Star, taking fourth at the Fort Lauderdale Major, and finishing fifth three times. At the Qinzhou Three Star in October, the pair won bronze.

Ross and Sweat were only able to play in four AVP tournaments, but they made the final in three, winning the title in Seattle. 

Kelly Claes/Sara Hughes

When the news got out that Kerri Walsh Jennings had asked Sara Hughes to be her new partner, many were shocked that Hughes chose to stay with her college teammate Kelly Claes, but the two women who led USC to the first official NCAA beach volleyball championship in May 2017 are committed to their Tokyo 2020 run.

In their first official professional season, Claes and Hughes won the AVP Championships in Chicago, took two fifths on the FIVB tour, and won bronze at the World Series of Beach Volleyball in Long Beach.

Emily Stockman/Kim DiCello

Emily Stockman and Kim DiCello appear committed to a second season as partners after making the final of the AVP Austin Open and winning the FIVB Langkawi One Star in 2017.

In the fall portion of the 2017-18 FIVB schedule, the pair took two fifth-place finishes at the Aalsmeer One Star in the Netherlands and the Sydney Two Star.

Brittany Hochevar/Emily Day

It’s no surprise that the reigning AVP Women’s Team of the Year is sticking together after winning three tournaments together in 2017.

Internationally, the pair played in nine tournaments last year, with their highest finish a fifth at the Xiamen Three Star.

Betsi Flint/Kelley Larsen

Betsi Flint and Kelley Larsen are one of the most committed teams in beach volleyball. Since joining the pro tours full-time in 2015, they haven’t played a single tournament with anyone else.

In 2017, the pair won the title at the AVP San Francisco Open, and played in a total of three finals. Internationally, Flint and Larsen won the Tangshan Jiangning Two Star in China and the Ulsan One Star in Korea.

Kerri Walsh Jennings/Nicole Branagh

Kerri Walsh Jennings refused to sign the AVP’s player contract ahead of the 2017 season, which forced a breakup between her and former partner April Ross. Walsh Jennings picked up Olympic beach volleyballer Nicole Branagh, but the pair only got five tournaments under their belt before Walsh Jennings dislocated her shoulder and was forced to sit out the remainder of the season. 

Even with a truncated season, the Branagh/Walsh Jennings partnership showed promise. They made it to the semifinal round of the Olsztyn Open before Walsh Jennings dislocated her shoulder and they lost narrowly in three sets to Melissa Humana-Paredes and Sarah Pavan and forfeited the bronze medal match.

Trevor Crabb/Sean Rosenthal

The older Crabb brother and Superman Sean Rosenthal got tantalizingly close to an AVP title last year, making the final in four of the eight tour stops, with three of those four matches going to a tie-breaking third set.

They’ll give it another go this year, and try to break through and win Crabb his first AVP title. Internationally, they’ll be looking to do better than the team-best fifth the took at the 2017 Xiamen Three Star.

Jake Gibb/Taylor Crabb

Jake Gibb and Taylor Crabb’s first season competing together resulted in two AVP titles (the New York City Open and Hermosa Beach Open) and almost $108,000 in prize money.

Perhaps even sweeter for the younger Crabb brother was going 2-1 against his brother Trevor in 2017.

Phil Dalhausser/Nick Lucena

The Olympic pair of Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena won three AVP tournaments in 2017, making their seven their grand total as a pair.

Internationally, they were even more successful, winning three gold medals (at the Moscow Three Star, Gstaad Major, and Swatch Major Series World Tour Finals) and finishing the season ranked No. 3 in the world.

Who's Testing The Water With Someone New?

John Hyden/Theo Brunner

John Hyden played the 2017 season alongside 7-foot-1 blocker Ryan Doherty, but after the season they decided to go their separate ways, with Doherty announcing on Facebook that Hyden would partner with Brunner and Doherty was on the market.

Brunner, one of the most sound blockers on tour, and Hyden, a wily veteran with one of the highest volleyball IQs on tour, will be a very interesting team to watch this year.

Stafford Slick/Casey Patterson

By all accounts, Stafford Slick and Billy Allen had a great showing in 2017. The duo finished the season as the No. 1-ranked pair on the AVP tour after making three finals and winning Slick his first title in Seattle.

But in October, an Instagram post by Casey Patterson announced that he had scooped up the AVP’s 2017 Most Improved Player Slick and signified one of the first partnership changes of the season.

The pair will be making their competition debut at the Dela Beach Open this week.

Billy Allen/Ryan Doherty

With Doherty and Allen both finding themselves partnerless only a couple of months after the conclusion of the 2017 season, their pairing up seemed to make sense. 

Allen, an athletic defender and creative offensive player, should have no trouble gobbling up any balls that get past Doherty’s massive block. Doherty will also benefit from the picture perfect setting of Allen. 

Lauren Fendrick/Karissa Cook

Lauren Fendrick and April Ross had a good run in 2017, including winning a silver medal at the FIVB World Championships in Vienna, but with Fendrick living in Palo Alto where her husband Andrew Fuller is the head beach volleyball coach at Stanford, the partnership didn’t have a real future.

Enter Karissa Cook, Fuller’s assistant at Stanford, who was a setter for Stanford before playing beach at Hawaii for a year. 

This partnership might just be the most well educated pair in beach volleyball. Cook has a engineering undergraduate degree from Stanford and a Masters in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Hawaii. Fendrick went to UCLA for undergrad and has a law degree from USC.

Alix Klineman/April Ross

April Ross revealed her partnership choice at the end of November. The two-time Olympic medalists will embark on the road to Tokyo with former indoor All-American and pro Alix Klineman. 

Klineman, a 6-5 blocker, played her first full AVP season last summer, pairing with Lane Carico in the final four tournaments. In San Francisco, Carico and Klineman made it all the way to the final where they lost to Flint and Larsen. 

One Final Tidbit

Canadian Olympian Chaim Schalk has decided to use his dual citizenship (through his marriage to American pro Carico) to compete for Team USA. However, he won’t be eligible to compete on the FIVB tour in red, white, and blue until October 2019, but we’ll likely see him on the AVP tour again this summer.