MANHATTAN BEACH — Chase Budinger and Miles Evans finally experienced what Phil Dalhausser and Trevor Crabb had accomplished 11 previous times.
Win a Manhattan Beach Open.
Budinger and Evans will have the honor of seeing their plaque on the Manhattan Beach pier with all the other past champions after they swept Dalhausser and Crabb in the men’s championship match on Sunday afternoon.
Budinger and Evans won the first set, 21-19, and then finished off Dalhausser and Crabb with a 21-16 win in the second.
“I tried to envision how it would end,” said Evans, who was playing in his first Manhattan Beach final after 11 years on the AVP. “It’s always different, but it’s such a good feeling. I’m so happy that Chase and I played good volleyball this weekend and, hopefully, this is the beginning of great things for us.”
Budinger played seven seasons in the NBA and teamed with Evans at the 2024 Olympics in France, but he also felt a large hole in his resume until Sunday. He had reached the Manhattan Beach final twice before, but lost both times to a team anchored by Crabb, who has won four Manhattan Beach titles overall.
“When I switched to beach volleyball, this is something that was one of my goals was to get my name on the pier,” Budinger said. “It took me eight years, but I’m finally here.”
Dalhausser was hoping to capture an eighth Manhattan Beach title in his final season on the AVP Tour, but Budinger and Evans weren’t going to let it happen.
“It would’ve been nice to go out with a W, but those guys played great,” Dalhausser said. “It’s tough to score points against them if you don’t get them in passing trouble.”
The best opportunity to steal a set for Dalhausser and Crabb came late in the first. Budinger and Evans led 20-19 when Budinger stuffed a kill attempt by Crabb to end the match.
“The opportunities we did have, they saved a lot of them,” Dalhausser said. “That kind of takes the wind out of the sails. Big momentum shift when you have a good opportunity.”
Dalhausser, 45, needed a medical timeout early in the second set because his right shoulder began to stiffen up. His team was trailing 9-5 at the time and they never got closer than two the rest of the way.
“I just couldn’t get any oomph on the ball,” Dalhausser said. “At that point, it’s so fatigued that there’s nothing much you can do.”
Budinger and Evans could sense the fatigue on the other side of the court. Not only did Dalhausser and Crabb have to play an extra match in the loser’s bracket after losing to Budinger and Evans on Saturday afternoon, but they had less rest between the semifinal and championship match on Sunday.
Budinger and Evans decided to serve the ball short to Dalhausser and Crabb and force them to burn more energy.
“We knew they had a short time of rest in between matches and we tried to tire them out a little bit more,” Budinger said. “I think that was to our advantage.”
In the women’s bracket, top-seeded Kristen Nuss and Taryn Brasher became the first women’s team to defend their Manhattan Beach title since 2017 when they rallied to beat second-seeded Terese Cannon and Megan Kraft in three sets.
Cannon and Kraft, who both played at USC, won the first set 21-15 and had leads of 17-14 and 18-16 in the second set, but Nuss and Brasher scored the final five points.
Cannon and Kraft then took a 13-12 lead in the third set, but Nuss and Brasher scored the final three points.
“When you see us play our best, it’s when our backs are against the wall,” Nuss said. “We just look at each other and we trust that our volleyball will show out.”
Nuss and Brasher also beat Cannon and Kraft in three sets in the final of the Huntington Beach Open in May.
“They’re both very, very long, so it’s hard to score against them,” Brasher said. “They serve really well, so it puts you in tough situations. They’re just going to never, ever give up.”
Cannon and Kraft reached the final with a 21-12, 21-13 win against fifth-seeded Corinne Quiggle and Teegan Van Gunst on Sunday morning.
Brasher and Nuss got past the surprising pair of 19th-seeded Kennedy Coakley and Ashley Pater in their semifinal, 23-21, 21-11.
Coakley was a freshman on USC’s beach volleyball team last spring and Pater was a sophomore for the Trojans.
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