No Surprises in AVP Austin Open Women’s Day 1

The AVP Austin Open return to Krieg Field after a two-year COVID hiatus.  Many things have changed in this year’s tournament. 

Under the new ownership of the Bally Corporation, the tourney is larger in number of events, growing from 8 to 16, but is smaller in scope.  16 seeded teams will compete this year with no qualification round, down from 12 seeded teams and a qualification round with 48 teams.  And the total pursue has shrunk from $150K in 2019 to $125K, split evenly between men and women.    

The winners of the 2019 Austin Open are back to defend their titles, kinda.  Taylor Crabb and Jake Gibb won the men’s title in 2019.  Gibb has since retired and Crabb is now teamed with Taylor Sander.  And the team of Karissa Cook and Jace Pardon took the women’s title in 2019.  Cook is now teamed with Emily Hartong and Pardon is not competing. 

Friday’s competition focused on the Winner’s Bracket with few surprises on the women’s side of the board. 

Top seeded Melissa Humana-Pardes and Sarah Paven defeated #16 seed Carly Skjodt and Geena Urango, 21-14, 21-19.  Humana-Pardes and Pavan, are consistently ranked in the Top 3 in the World, finishing both the 2017 and 2019 season as #1. 

Second seeded Kelly Cheng and Betsi Flint bested 15th seed Aurora Davis and Teegan Van Gunst in a tight contest, 21-18, 21-19.  Flint is a 5-time AVP Champion.

The team of Terese Cannon and Sarah Sponcil (#3) eeked past Toni Rodriguez and Savannah Simo (#14) in a tie-breaker set sent into to overtime, 18-21, 22-20, 17-15. 

And the 4th seeded team of Sara Hughes and Kelley Kolinske easily handled the #13 seed team of Carly Kan and Kaitlyn Leary, 21-8, 21-17.  Kolinske is a 3-time AVP Champion and was part of the youngest team, at the time, to win an AVP championship. 

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