Austin - Last Reg. Season AVP League Stop

There’s nothing quite like a home weekend - especially when home is Austin, Texas a beach volleyball loving community!

The final AVP league weekend of the 2025 season was packed with family, stories, laughs and a sky ball. From stormy roads to surprise fans, hard-fought matches to surprise double dates, our time back in Austin as the Austin Aces was a great way to wrap up the season.

We kicked things off with a rainy drive into New Orleans, grabbed a quick dinner with the Nuss parents (shoutout to them for the airport drop-off), and made our way to Austin. A slightly delayed flight? At this point, we don’t even react. We landed, drove out to the Cedar Park area, and called it a night.

“Media Day” turned out to be more low-key than expected — not a huge turnout, but still spreading the news about beach volleyball coming to town! We did a Zoom or two and then had an update with AVP, it was nice to share our thoughts on the buildout of the AVP League. We know that it is still growing and only the second year but we are really trying to help the sport grow and allow for more and more beach volleyball opportunities here in the US. Then we had a fun interview where we had to describe our play as a music genre or a dance move and name a color that explains our play together. All of the questions were so different we were left without a response for most of them. Luckily, we have the ability to take over for the other person if someone is at a loss for words!

Breakfast and coffee are always a must and this time it was just the two of us. A couple of people even recognized us, and one woman couldn’t quite place how she knew us… but ended up following us out to the car (sounds scary but she was kind and Kristen did not listen to the stranger danger rules and rolled down the window) and we told her about the beach volleyball event and she ended up buying tickets and coming to our match with her daughters. Stuff like that reminds us why we do this. Her daughters were so excited to get the ball signed and give us a high five it was adorable!

Dinner that night was downtown with Kristen’s high school best friend at a Caribbean spot. We could only read half the menu but everything we tried was delectable!

Friday started with breakfast with my mother-in-law and Kristen’s future mother-in-law and fiancé! (It’s so crazy how much has changed within the last year!)  Then I went to coffee with momma Brasher for some solo time — Kristen caught a movie with her future fam, while I ran late chatting with Momma Brash and hung in the hotel lobby with Audrey, who was basically making friends with everyone who walked by. I mean everyone, she is the friendliest person and she loves to make friends with the other players, commentators, other fans and anyone else that walked through the building. She truly embodies Southern hospitality!

Then came our first match of the weekend — and our first loss of the 2025 AVP league season. Miami Mayhem came out strong, and we gave up way too many points on our own errors. They earned the win. It stung, but we showered off the sand, shook it off, and turned our eyes to Saturday the final chance to clinch a top seed.

After a Kristen favorite hotel breakfast, we found a local coffee shop with our crew and soaked in some caffeine before a meet-and-greet. We were raising money for the Austin Disaster Relief Network and all the proceeds from the meet and greet went towards this cause too. We always love these smaller settings where we can share our story face to face and really hear what fans are curious about (turns out people really want to know if we like our opponents and what our daily lives look like)!

Then it was go time. Final match of the league season. A win meant a first-round bye in the Championship weekend. We stepped onto the sand and Kristen started off the last match with a highly sought after SKYBALL. The deal was – if we could raise $2,500 for the Austin Disaster Relief Network, she would do a skyball, of which everyone loves and can’t wait to see. She started us off strong with an impeccable first skyball and we walked off with the W.

Notice all the sweat.

Sunday was full of surprises from Kristen and Trey. Kristen and I had planned on a double date day with the boys in Austin, but that plan included paddle boards on the lake, of which had some issues from the flooding so we pivoted and the future Cruz’s planned a fun morning. We had a delicious breakfast and coffee date followed by an interactive experience called Activate. 10/10 recommend. It’s basically a playground for grown-ups. We were playing all the games from the floor is lava to the shooting laser guns and the best part… we laughed until our sides hurt.

Next, we hit up a farmers’ market (and nearly melted in the Texas heat), grabbed some lunch, and got the news: flight delayed. But in record time, we switched airlines, got reimbursed, and rebooked — all without missing a beat. Sometimes you don’t realize how in-sync you are until someone else points it out (thanks, Eric).

We still get one more weekend this year to represent the Austin Aces in Chicago at the League Championships over Labor Day weekend!

We didn’t rush from clinic to clinic this time. As much as we love teaching the game, this weekend was about enjoying the city and our special people that have been cheering us on! Having our boys in town and exploring the city together was so fun!  

As for the most important detail – the Austin Disaster Relief Network will be receiving over $3,000 from all of the people that donated – thank you for all of the support. The final number will be posted via social media to show what a community can do for another community!

See you in Chicago.