Sixteen professional volleyball teams are digging into the sand at Oak Street Beach this weekend as the AVP League Championship returns to Chicago's lakefront for its Tier 1 postseason finale. The event, scheduled for this weekend at 1001 N. DuSable Lake Shore Drive, features eight men's teams and eight women's teams competing for a title, with matches starting at 10 a.m. both Saturday and Sunday.
Chicago has hosted an annual Labor Day beach volleyball event for years, and this year's championship caps a season that has taken the AVP League to stops in Miami, the Las Vegas Strip and Long Beach, California, according to the Chicago Tribune. Teams have spent the season earning points based on their performance at each tour stop, building toward this weekend's bracket. The top two finishers overall, Miami Mayhem and Palm Beach Passion, earned byes straight into the semifinals.
Miami Mayhem currently leads Palm Beach Passion by a single match point, meaning both franchises need to win just one more match apiece to set up a direct faceoff, per the Tribune's reporting. Palm Beach Passion enters as the league's reigning power, having already claimed the 2025 AVP League Cup before adding this year's regular-season crown after finishing 13-3 across its men's and women's pairings, according to AVP Beach Volleyball.
Top-Ranked Duos Chase the Title
On the men's side, Taylor Crabb and Andy Benesh top the AVP leaderboard with a 7-1 record, while Trevor Crabb — Taylor's brother — has paired with Phil Dalhausser to post the same 7-1 mark, the Tribune reports. Palm Beach Passion will have to get past potential competition from Taryn Brasher and Kristen Cruz, who notched big victories in Dallas and Manhattan Beach, California, as well as Kelly Cheng and Megan Kraft.
The women's leaderboard is led by Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson, who own a 6-2 season record. The pair are also 2024 Olympic silver medalists representing Canada, adding an international pedigree to the Chicago field. Their run through the tournament will be watched closely as the sport builds toward the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
A College Star's Path to the Pro Sand
Geena Urango, who was the first person to earn an NCAA scholarship for beach volleyball, will compete at Oak Street Beach this weekend alongside partner Megan Rice. The duo opens play at noon Saturday against Kelly Cheng and Megan Kraft, according to the Tribune. Urango told the paper that Chicago has had an amazing AVP fan base since she began playing on the circuit, and she said attending a beach volleyball event in person can turn spectators into lifelong fans.
Urango also credited the sport's collegiate pipeline for its growth, saying college beach volleyball has helped the sport expand, and that the buildup to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics is increasing hype around the game. She added that people are now willing to attend and invest in beach volleyball in ways that felt less certain in years past.
That collegiate surge has real numbers behind it. NCAA beach volleyball has grown to more than 100 sponsored programs, up from just 15 schools during its inaugural 2012 championship season, according to Sports Planning Guide. Starting with the 2025-2026 academic year, NCAA Division I rules also allow beach volleyball programs to offer up to 19 athletic scholarships per school, a steep jump from the previous cap of six, per NCSA College Recruiting.
Oak Street Beach's Volleyball Roots
Oak Street Beach itself was formed in the late 1800s from sand trapped by a breakwater system north of the Chicago River, and the Chicago Park District now manages more than 150 public sand volleyball courts along Lake Michigan. The beach has become something of a fixture for the AVP; during the 2024 AVP Chicago Open at this same stretch of sand, players Chase Budinger and Trevor Crabb received double red cards following a viral center-court altercation, a moment Hoodline previously covered ahead of the pair later teaming up as top seeds at the Manhattan Beach Open.
This year's championship fits into the AVP's broader three-tier restructuring, under which the league reorganized its calendar into Tier 1 League play, Tier 2 Heritage events and Tier 3 Contender qualifiers, according to AVP Beach Volleyball. The shift traces back to November 2023, when the AVP first announced the creation of city-based franchises with equal men's and women's teams across major U.S. markets, moving away from the traditional open-tournament format.
Volleyball's Bigger Moment This Weekend
Chicago's championship arrives the same weekend that outdoor volleyball is getting a national spotlight elsewhere. Wrigley Field will host a women's college volleyball doubleheader Sunday night, with Kentucky, ranked No. 3, playing Penn State, ranked No. 13, and Nebraska facing Missouri on an elevated court built directly over second base — the first time volleyball has been played inside the 112-year-old ballpark, per MLB.com.
That kind of marquee-venue staging picked up steam after August 2023's Volleyball Day in Nebraska, which drew 92,003 fans to Memorial Stadium in Lincoln and set the world attendance record for a women's sporting event, according to the West Kentucky Star. Nebraska has since played exhibitions at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, and T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, part of a pattern of taking the sport to nontraditional big-stage settings.
Getting to Oak Street Beach
Fans heading to the championship this weekend are encouraged to use public transportation to reach Oak Street Beach, with nearby parking garages and rideshares available as backup options, per the Tribune. The women's final is set for 1 p.m. Sunday, followed by the men's final at 2 p.m., and tickets are available through the AVP's website. For those not attending in person, the 2026 AVP League season is being broadcast on The CW and CBS Sports Network, with additional streaming on YouTube and Bally Live, according to Volleyballmag.com, as the league builds toward the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
