2026 AVP LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP - CHICAGO, IL | Women Semifinal 1 – Brooklyn Blaze v Palm Beach Passion

A city known for its beauty, its hospitality, its criminals, and its poor-played football. Welcome to Chicago. It is also known for its love of this sport, beach volleyball, indoor volleyball. They are all about it. A sold-out crowd greets our first women's semifinal here for the Progressive AVP League Championships. Kevin Barnett alongside Rich Lambourne, the defending champs, Brooklyn. Denneberg and Donletter face it off with Palm Beach, Jumano-Paredes and Wilkerson. Runners-up a year ago. This is a championship rematch this year having in the semifinal, Richie. Yeah, absolutely. Jumano-Paredes, Wilkerson looking for a little bit of revenge for the cup champions again this year with their counterparts on the men's side. They're looking for that first individual title here in Chicago. Inside, they opened up to the pink having already played one match. It was against Dallas. They won the first and the third, 15-9 in both. Denneberg outstanding 15 kills, 12 digs, four aces. Donlon doing a nice job with the men. Not necessarily with stuff, but a lot of controls. Yeah, absolutely. We oftentimes speculate, we wonder if playing that extra match gets the body moving, sort of oils up the joints a little bit, has you better prepared for that second match of the day. We'll have to wait and see. They certainly looked good this morning. We saw Miami get off to sort of a slow start. Will that be the case for their opponents? We will see. The Blays have gone back, gotten in their uniforms, a little bit of rest and recovery, and return here for Julia Donlon, who is seeking an Olympic games alongside her husband, Drew, who is on America's handball team, trying to be one of those rare couples who are Olympians. Lexi Denneberg on the other side. She has nuptials in the future. Her fiance, a baseball player, unable to be here this week, having a little bit of his own recovery. But we know he's watching the two men to watch Lexi Denneberg take the stand once again after an exceptional outing this morning. The part-time blocker turned full-time defender can be a weapon. On the other side is one of the top teams on the planet, arguably the best team on the planet at times. Olympians, silver medalist, Melissa Jimenez-Paredes and Brandi Wilkerson out of Canada. Yeah, Bella has a world championship under her belt as well. And Brandi has a runner-up at the world championship. So a very, very accomplished duo, both individually and together. Two of the nicest people you're going to meet, too, in a sport full of fantastic folks. Well, we said they're Canadian. That kind of goes hand in hand. I asked them about Brian Adams, and they apologized for blocking. They did say, thanks for having us, buddy. They have been through the ringer this year, Melissa Jimenez-Paredes and Brandi Wilkerson. Injury for Mel had a substitution happening for three of the matches. They rebounded in their final outing in New York going 2-0, including a victory over Brasher and Cruz of Austin. Brandi Wilkerson at just 5'11". She's going to play about 6'2", and that's not the height of the pony. That's actual effect on the game. Yeah, maybe even larger than that. Just an explosive athlete out there. Probably the most imposing blocker on the planet. Averaging over 1.2 blocks per set to lead the AVP once again. How much can she get a hold of Donalyn and Denneberg? We will see. These teams met in Aspen. That's week two quite some time ago. It was 15-6, 15-10, a complete dismissal of Brooklyn by Palm Beach. Winner to the championship tomorrow, loser season over. Expect this one to be a little bit more competitive than the scoreline you just repeated. Yeah, Brandi had six blocks in that one. Melissa, 18 kills, 10 digs. Preposterous numbers. Mel, with that little slide serve she's been going to this year, puts it right up the middle to begin. Difficult swing for Donalyn. Beautiful set, but instead it is Julia Donalyn picking up block number one. Yeah, good discipline there in transition at the net for Julia Donalyn. Just kind of getting right in front of Mel. She was pushed a little wider, I think, than maybe she wanted. Taking that one on two, cleverly done to the outside. Yeah, a lot of deception going on there. You can see Mel starting to slide around to the right side. Brandi, obviously, left-handed, can go after that ball at any point along the net. She's attacking numbers this year substantially off of last year. 521 for her. This year, she's in the 200s. That one point over, does find the range, and Brooklyn wants to win the crowd. I know we're only three points in, but there's already a little bit of a similar vibe in this match, as we saw in the final last year. A lot of these kind of bang-bang plays going the way of the Brooklyn Blaze. That was 15-10, 15-10, a surprise result in this championship, as Brandi Wilkerson is having none of that. There's a little toot to go with the smack. Toot, indeed. On the left side. Down the line. I like the energy of these attacks so far from both sides. Yeah, that is very aggressive. It takes some intestinal fortitude when that set gets tight against Brandi Wilkerson at the net to go in aggressively like that. That's a two-time Mel Deal for both Melissa Jimenez-Paredes and Brandi Wilkerson, our two-time Olympians, alongside other partners initially, alongside one another in 2024. Representing Canada, silver medal for this pair. Two-time best blocker in the AVP, Brandi Wilkerson. Going to the jump serve. She's been varying it up quite a bit with the service game. Yeah, that's been a good weapon for her historically, though. She can get into a rhythm from the service line with that jump serve, just needs a little bit more of a, more height on that toss, perhaps. Yeah, just nine aces on the season for Wilkerson. She can't find the range there. 5-3, Brooklyn with the advantage. You are room points to think about it. Aces have not been the strong point for this team this year. Just 13 combined. Of course, keep in mind, they have played three fewer matches together in the season than everyone else that played just five matches. Yeah, fortunately, everybody looking healthy out there this weekend. Particularly the one we're watching dealt with some knee stuff earlier in the year, had to sit out in the Hamptons. Yeah, and Mel suffering a hip injury in Miami as that ball finds the sand off of Donlon's powerful attack. Beautiful scene here on Oak Street Beach. It is the first beach at the top of Michigan Avenue and you find North Beach beyond it. Good touch by Donlon. Wilkerson, left side. She finds the range over the top. Good little soft shot. Mel's doing a nice job of dealing with some tight sets on that right side. It's been a couple of them. Hooked the first one through, got the recycle on this last one. Go to Lexi Denneberg, who drops that one down for the seventh point of this first set. Lexi must love Chicago when it comes to AVP League play. She's 4-0 in progressive AVP League matches. She is 1-4 all time in previous matches in this city. It has been a nice run over the last few years for Lexi Denneberg. Across her body and a little too far. According to the linesman. Looking at J-Rod to get off the stand and have a second look. Melissa looks confident that that one was in. J-Rod is pretty convinced he will climb his throne. He will let us know when it is. Yeah, that is. On the sideline, big difference there. 7-6 versus 8-5. And no argument for Brooklyn. Yeah. Yeah, going back to your point about Brooklyn, in a way you could say they understood the assignment. Make it to the championship weekend and then put on your best performance. That led to a title last year. Yeah, you never know. Long tournament, short tournament, a couple of days of competition, how it's going to go in a championship round. Melissa Umena-Paredes, beautiful dig. Can't get the kill out of it. Julie Donlon can. A beautiful dig for Bell. Also a beautiful dig for Donlon. That overhand dig was saucy. Let's see the aggressive put away in the cross court. I'll take the 8-6 side check. There it is. Soft hands, and a good attack. High, set, delivered, and the full check down works. Good read from Brady Wilkerson. Looking off the defender. Applied to the hitter. Back to the jump serve. Leaned into that one. Melissa crawling to get it. Brooklyn was behind in the play. All of a sudden, they are ahead, and they score it 9-7. That is a tremendous get from Melissa Umena-Paredes. Unfortunately, that's where being a lefty hurts just a little bit. Brandy has to kind of contort awkwardly just to try and get this one over. Gives Brooklyn another opportunity. There's the modern game for you right there, letting that second contact go and play continue. Folks getting used to it. If you're not used to it, check your birth certificate. You're all right. The song that's playing currently has a perfect lyric for that exact concept, Kevin. You're from the 70s, and I'm a 90s person. I don't care. I love it. I don't care. I love it. Big high reach and finding it. It's not the cleanest of contacts, but you'll take it. Take it all day. And really, the order of business with Paul Beach, if they're looking to come back, is they've got to disrupt the offensive rhythm of Brooklyn somehow. Brooklyn, when they are passing the ball well and in rhythm, this is what you get. Very physical, next to unstoppable. Oh, what a drop there by Wilkerson. She's gone through quite a bit here. That's kind of been ebbing and flowing, that aspect of their attack this season. Yeah, I think it's very important for their success here at Championship Weekend. And I like how calm Brandy looks on that. Just notices that the pass is going to get in the region for her to attack. Has a glance at the defense and picks her spot. So far, Brooklyn not giving anything back. Brandy gets there late and finds the rave. A little Steph Curry celebration, too. Flying out of that stuff block. I like it. I mean, look at the work that goes into that. She's just barely arriving there in time, having to come all the way from the service line. That is some Steph Curry action there. Back to back, yes, indeed. Timeout coming. You called it two earlier. We'll call that a little bit of swagger on the back-to-back blocks. All right, take the swag into the player's tent for just a second, because timeout has been called by Brooklyn, who trails now in this set. Favorite kind of beef, Kevin? Swag you. Her average is 1.2 per set. That is back-to-back stuff blocks for the best blocker on the women's side, and perhaps in the world, Brandy Wilkerson. Yeah, 6'2 might have been too small. 6'4, perhaps, would be a better estimate for Brandy Wilkerson in the way she plays, much bigger than her roster 5'10". This is how it's gone for this pair this year. They won the revenge match right off the top against Miami 2-1. They played against Brooklyn 2-0. That was the revenge match there from the championship. That was 15-6, 15-10. From there, it'd be kind of a journey with injuries and unstableness. Yeah, but they, you can see, they only dropped those two matches. That little period of uncertainty. Subbed in Savvy Corey. Vegas got a couple wins. So both of these teams really have leaned on some substitutions with some great success. Yeah, for Brooklyn, it was the final weekend in East Hampton to punch the ticket here. And it was Devin Newberry stepping in for Julia Donlan. Had herself a weekend alongside Lexi Denneberg. Newberry, nine kills, hit 727 in the first. 15 kills, hit 636 in the second. Both wins. Second, and that was Austin and Miami. How about three for three? No Steph Curry celebration on that one. That's perfect. Third in a row. Well, if the graphics team has it, they should put a turkey on the board. Right there. Great look at that block. Just straight over the net with that right hand in the angle. And that stare coming at you too. 12-10. Sticking with the jump serve. Still in. How about four by four? No. Overpass. And it points, Brandi Wilkerson. And it's up and down. Three in a straight line. Come on, she gets the kill. The lead is three. You mentioned the look through the net. We talked about how nice Mel and Brandi are as people. Don't confuse that with lack of competitive fervor. Low set. Easy one for Mel. She's going to get in on the action here. Welcome to the Brandi show. That is 4-0 from Brandi. 6-0 by the side. And it is a set point. Palm Beach passion putting it to Brooklyn here in the second half of the set. Yeah, when you have a weapon like the block of Brandi Wilkerson, that is how quickly things can change. Scooping that one to Donlon. Breathing heavily before the play. And an error ends it. Just like that, Kevin. It looked like Brooklyn were in control. There was a moment where we had to go to the challenge just to make it 8-7-6 instead of 8-5 in favor of Brooklyn. And Palm Beach, with that one running away off the back of some tremendous blocking for Brandi Wilkerson. A 7-0 run to finish, 15-10. Palm Beach one away from second consecutive final. AVP Beach Volleyball is more than a sport. It's an experience. And for just $59 a year, AVP Gold membership gives you all access. Ticket discounts all season. Early access to seats. Compete in AVP events. And big savings on ProGear. Get in the game and experience everything the AVP has to offer. Get your Gold membership today at AVP.com. Championship. Now I'm not going to advocate for beating a rented mule unless it is a rubber mule. Have at it with that one. As our donkey derby continues. Now admittedly, this game is absolute torture on the knees and the thighs and the hamstrings and such. But this might be one of the slowest donkey races we've ever seen. This might be the highest humidity we've had for a donkey race as well. Some people are looking exhausted. We're going to talk about your VO2 max. This race is lasting a very long time. Rich will be here all weekend, as will the rest of us. Catch me at the Chicago Chuckle Hut. Yes, we were discussing earlier the terrible names of comedy clubs. Chuckle Hut is number one. If you have a better, then hit us with it. We'd like to know. No, there's nothing funny about this for the Brooklyn Blades. Those stats are not good. Not good, but again, it was kind of the final third of the set where Brandi just started putting up an absolute wall that led to those four errors. She had the four stuffs, and that detracted from Brooklyn's otherwise good start to this one. They need to regain form a little bit, see if they can't work their way past the Wilkerson wall. It was early that Donlon got the single stuff on that side. It was Wilkerson running off those three blocks, the error to lose it, and that incredible 7-0 run to finish. Wilkerson, seven kills on 10. Her partner, four of eight with four digs. Mel, picking up some opportunities to go with the blocking of her partner. That is the kind of thing that makes you a silver medalist. They'll work on Mel first. Brandi pulls that one off for her, and it does find the range to the sideline. Zero, women in pink. I'm Kevin Barnett. He is Rich Landborn. One of us is a gold medalist. Our first semifinal. We have women's right now, Palm Beach and Brooklyn. Have our men. That ball is cut expertly by Alexi Denneberg, who is herself an Olympic hopeful. Time All-American, all tournament in NCAA beach volleyball during her days at UCLA. Wilkerson, full head of steam, beautiful dig by Denneberg, right in the pocket there. Tough opportunity converted. Excellent stuff. We talked about the early part of set one, how they were getting a lot of these bang-bang plays to go in their favor. Need to keep the energy high. This is a tremendous dig. I like the movement in transition as well. Wilkerson to pull, leave a wide open net. You talk about that concept, Kevin. How do you maintain the fire, the energy on your side when you're up against it? One foot in front of the other. Yeah, you worry about the next play as you turn for Palm Beach as they move on to the next play and take the lead by one. That is just beautiful patience defensively from Melissa. She's kind of standing in the middle of the court, waiting for anything soft to go over her high-flying partner. Well, it must be fun to play defense behind Brandi Wilkerson, who in 27 progressive AVP League matches has three plus blocks and 18 of them. How about that? That is what they call dominant, and that is what she was in the first set, stringing together three straight. Nice set from her partner. Better move from Denneberg. We like this one. Got it. Crisp line shot there from Denneberg in transition. Good defensive run of her own. Pick up that first shot. Remember, Brooklyn led 8-6, and Palm Beach would come back at right around the 10-point mark. The runner would start and finish the set. What about the follow that time? Bad pass to begin. Tell me about the mechanics of the next two contests. Well, yeah, she's following Melissa so that that set has a shorter distance to travel. And should it go further into the court, she can kind of work that direction. She doesn't have to chase all the way over the sideline when the set comes up. First call we've seen today. Right to left on that one, for sure. Nice work opening that bike just in time to get J-Rod's explanation that it was the side spin, not the spin itself. It's going left to right on the spin, or right to left, either direction, indicating that you contacted it separately with your hands. Wow, big movement there from Denneberg. How about that footwork from the short serve around to the left? Yeah, I like that. Length in your approach is a desirable thing on the beach. Usually, you pass it, and you kind of have some length going north to south, as it were. When you have to receive the ball short like that, you can create that length in your approach east to west. Ball set too tight. Randy Wilkerson climbs the ladder. When you're wildly athletic, like Randy, you can come in too early and have no approach and still side out. That's Rich Landmore. He's a 2008 gold medalist in indoor volleyball, longtime coach on the beach, and not speaking from experience in that last comment. About the wild athleticism? Yeah. I was thinking about climbing the ladder. Oh, yeah. I was like the anti-matter of my team. Everyone else had it in spades, and I was the yang to their yin. Don't sell yourself short. You're a tremendous slouch. That ball's a little long. How do you judge yourself against other players? Height. We're having some fun. Hopefully, you are, too, watching Palm Beach dominate at the last part of the first set. Ken Brooklyn, the defending champions here in Chicago, come back in the second and force a third. This is a rematch of the 25 final, won by Brooklyn and being won right now by Brandi Wilkerson and her block. That is her fourth, first of the set. We established that as the threshold for monster blocks, making it a monster match. And certainly, Brandi is in that category. I love the patience on that particular play, just seeing that play develop, seeing that set get close, but not giving away her position too early. Welcome back to Chicago and Oak Street Beach. Our semifinal between Brooklyn and Palm Beach. As we watch that ball go just long for Melissa Jimena-Paredes alongside her partner, Brandi Wilkerson. This is a rematch of the 25 final, happening around earlier this year. But Brooklyn lays down one set to none, trailing 15-10 in the first. It is close action here in the second. Kevin Barnett and Rich Lamborn having a good day in Chi-Town. Brandi Wilkerson's having herself a day as she again comes up with the kill. She already has four blocks, and on the mat, she's hitting north of 660 with 11 kills on 15 attempts. And just kind of demeanor-wise, this is when the Palm Beach Passion are at their best, in my opinion, when things are going like this for Brandi. She's dominating, and she's got a little bit of that sort of head-popping, finger-snapping attitude out on the court. Kind of that confident swagger. Indeed. Hitting at the retreating Donland. Nice move there by Julia, who slices it off for the winner and the time. Brandi's going to have a chat with J-Rod, thinking that that overhand dig happened a little bit too deep. I think it was pretty quick, pretty clean. 9-9. Chat is over. Vandenberg and Donland really picked up their level here in the second. Part of that is there's only been one block and not three. Difficult opportunity converted by Brandi Wilkerson. She'll be looking for another block out of that side out here. She has 16 blocks in her last five matches. So that's 12 sets. She's really moved that average up over the last few matches here in the latter half of the season. Now here, she'll just get the kill. 11-9. Is it time for a timeout? Might be. Time is running short. Another one slip away, if you're Brooklyn. That's how you deal with an overpass. Get rid of the dumb redirect. No more of that. Swing, people. Passed into the hat. Vandenberg finds the range anyway. Haven't seen a pass go through a hat recently. The ball knows angles. It doesn't matter if it's off your visor or otherwise. Working on Wilkerson. He's over on the left once again and still finding the range. Yeah, Donovan a little bit displeased with herself there. That was a relatively easy opportunity that was missed. Pulling off the net, it's hard to expect that soft shot. But she does a nice job. I mean, she's balanced there. It's just there's that kind of negative step. Takes her the wrong direction. Wilkerson with 19 attempts from Anna Paredes with just none. They've been going after Brandi. Good touch there. Mel back up twice. Her partner. I mean, how about the chug through the sand initially for Mel. Went to her knees, almost got all the way back up. There it is. She does, in fact, get back up. Phenomenal pursuit, yeah. There's the elation. I think Mel put the sand paddle tires on the rims for the weekend here. She's had a couple of efforts where she's going so low. She's got to finish it on the knees. Full dune buggy dig. Yeah. And just like that, stretching it out once again. Now 13 to 10 timeout taken by Wilkerson. They're suffering at the will of Palm Beach. They're back to the wall here, down 15 to 10. Once set to nine, now 13 to 10 in this set. Palm Beach fans with the flags enjoying it. We saw a stat pop up there in the midst of their discussion. The last two matches, Wilkerson 24 kills, two errors. Yikes. That is fantastic. It makes you wonder a little bit why Brooklyn is deciding to go after her. Yeah, I was wondering about that, the on-two threat. Everybody seems to be going away from the on-two threat often. I mean, it is a little bit of a pick-your-poison thing. It's something that I would say, and easy to say in retrospect, of course, when it isn't working out in your favor. But it's something you try once or twice, but then you've got to get away from it. You can't get married to a strategy that doesn't seem to be working. Yeah, it's arsenic or anthrax when you're facing Palm Beach. Your choice. You have to study his poisons. Yeah, do you want a little ricin? OK, I was going to say, I thought you only knew A poisons. It's out of the timeout. Brooklyn, the time is now. My favorite poison, Iocane powder. Rich Lambert, a noted enthusiast of murder mysteries. More comedies. No. To Brandy. To Alexi, to the sand, and they are within one. Palm Beach does have a timeout. And what do we know? The strategy pays off. Nice defensive play there from Brooklyn against Wilkerson. Check down, look away, and now a match point. That was a really, really nice shot, because that set got a little bit off the net. Took a good look and caught Denneberg on the move. Mel to the service line. No aces in the match. Her partner has five blocks. Will it be six? No, it's an error. The first and the second end the same. A Palm Beach victory on a Brooklyn miss. The revenge match complete. Palm Beach find their way into the final again, this time with a different foe. They get that retribution against the Brooklyn Blaze that took them out last year for the title. Indeed, they go 2-0 against Brooklyn on the season. Straight sets, having won all four here. It's 15-10, 15-12, and we will once again see Mel and Brandy in the final. Not surprising we did get the monster match from Brandy Wilkerson. She faced the lion's share of the reception, but she was also the huge force at the net blocking. So our women's bracket has taken even more shape. Chang and Kraft, Bradshaw-Cruz, that will be tomorrow morning. So it'll be two matches for one of those two teams to face off with Ximena Paredes and Wilkerson. Over the second straight season have arrived in the final women's match of the year. Will it be sweet victory this season? Last year, it was the agony of defeat. They will not be careening off the end of the ski jump against the same opponent as they have taken revenge on Brooklyn and taken themselves to an opportunity to put on the championship belts. For Rich Lamborn and our entire crew here in Chicago, I'm Kevin Barnett saying goodbye from this one and congratulations, Palm Beach. We'll see you on championship Sunday.