Larissa-Liliane, Rodriguez-Palm win AVP Muskegon beach volleyball titles
Brazilian greats Larissa and Liliane Maestrini won the women’s title and Roberto Rodriguez and Dave Palm won the men’s Sunday at the AVP Tour Series Muskegon (Michigan) Open.
Larissa, 40, became the oldest woman to win an AVP title, while Palm won for the first time.
Three-time Olympian Larissa and Liliane, who are married and live in Orlando with their young child, beat former USC greats Geena Urango and Julia Scoles 21-17, 21-16 in the final.
In the semifinals, the top-seeded Brazilians beat 11th-seeded Deahna Kraft and Allie Wheeler (who also played at USC) 21-17, 21-15. Seventh-seeded Urango and Scoles beat second-seeded Corinne Quiggle and Sarah Schermerhorn 21-14, 21-11. Urango is a tour veteran, while Scoles (featured here last month) was on the USC team that won the NCAA title just more than a month ago.
It was the second AVP win for Larissa and first for Liliane. Larissa won an AVP title in Glendale, Arizona, playing with Juliana Felisberta in 2009 when they beat Misty May and Kerri Walsh in the final.
“We really tried to play together and to find our game. Larissa played really well all tournament,” Liliane said. “She’s an amazing player, and it was great to play with the energy of the crowd here. It was really fun to play here in Muskegon.”
Ninth-seeded Rodriguez and Palm beat second-seeded Evan Cory and Billy Kolinske in the final 21-14, 26-24. They also beat the top seeds earlier in the third round 21-19, 21-8.
“Friday night, I had a calcium stone and was in such tremendous pain that I didn’t know if I was going to play this weekend,” Palm said. “I threw up five times and wasn’t sure I was going to get through yesterday or today.
“I’m overwhelmed.”
In the semifinals, they knocked out top-seeded Andy Benesh and Avery Drost 21-18, 18-21, 15-9. Cory and Kolinske beat eighth-seeded Noah Dyer and Chase Frishman 23-25, 21-14, 15-12.
Rodriguez, 35, won his second AVP title and first since he and Ed Ratledge won AVP San Francisco in 2018. Palm, 31, who has six NVL victories on his resume, won for the first time in 11 AVP starts.
Both winning pairs took home $8,000, while the second-place finishers split $5,000. The AVP heads to Denver for another Top Series event July 1-3 in Denver.
Click here for the complete men’s results, courtesy of BVBinfo.com, and here for the women’s.
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