Your Guide to the 2026 AVP Season: New Cities, Big Names, and a Schedule Worth Bookmarking

VolleyTea Staff

The sand is hot, the rosters are shaken up, and the AVP just kicked off one of its most ambitious seasons yet. Here’s everything you need to know.

Beach volleyball season is here, and the 2026 AVP has wasted no time making noise.

The season opener at Huntington Beach already went down May 15–17, and things are just getting started. With new cities on the calendar, a revamped Heritage Tournament Series, fresh player pairings, and a League Championship finale set for Chicago in September, this is shaping up to be the most expansive AVP season in years. Here’s your full breakdown.

The Full 2026 Schedule

✅ Already Completed

  • Huntington Beach Open — May 15–17 | Huntington Beach Pier, CA (Heritage Major)

📅 Coming Up

  • Belmar — May 30–31 | Belmar, NJ (League Week 1 — Season Opener)
  • Aspen — June 6–7 | Aspen, CO (League Week 2)
  • Miami — June 12–13 | Miami, FL (League Week 3)
  • Las Vegas — June 19–20 | Las Vegas, NV (League Week 4)
  • Long Beach — July 11–12 | Long Beach, CA (League Week 5)
  • Central Park — July 18–19 | New York City, NY (League Week 6)
  • East Hampton — July 25–26 | EHP Resort & Marina, East Hampton, NY (League Week 7)
  • Dallas — August 7–8 | Dallas, TX (League Week 8)
  • Manhattan Beach Open — August 14–16 | Manhattan Beach Pier, CA (Heritage Major)
  • League Championship — September 5–6 | Chicago, IL

What’s New in 2026

The AVP didn’t just tweak the schedule; it genuinely expanded it. Three brand new markets join the League calendar this season: Belmar, New Jersey, Aspen, Colorado, and Las Vegas, Nevada, while proven markets like Miami, New York, Dallas, and Chicago hold their spots.

The Heritage Tournament Series also got a significant upgrade. The Laguna Open, one of the most storied stops in beach volleyball history, has been elevated from a Contender event to a full Heritage Major, joining Huntington Beach and Manhattan Beach as the sport’s marquee prestige events. For longtime fans, it’s overdue. For newer ones, it’s three must-watch weekends on the calendar.

The League itself features eight teams across nine cities, with each team playing four of the eight regular-season stops before the field converges in Chicago for the championship.

The Players to Watch

The rosters got scrambled this offseason, and it’s made everything more interesting.

On the men’s side, Phil Dalhausser and Trevor Crabb return as the defending League champions. Dalhausser is a four-time Olympian and the most decorated player in AVP history. Crabb was named the 2025 AVP MVP. They’re the team everyone is chasing.

The women’s side is headlined by Kristen Nuss Cruz and Taryn Brasher, the AVP League’s highest-ranked women’s duo in the world. Nuss Cruz is a 2024 Paris Olympian, 2023 AVP MVP, and the winningest player in NCAA beach volleyball history. Brasher is a two-time AVP Team of the Year selection. They’re the clear favorites.

Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson, the Canadian duo who won silver at the Paris Olympics, are back and hunting a title. Wilkerson has led the women’s league in hitting percentage and blocks per set in every AVP League season; she doesn’t have a weakness.

One of the more compelling storylines: the defending League champion women’s pair of Lexy Denaburg and Julia Donlin, who won three straight matches to claim the 2025 title. Donlin transitioned to beach volleyball after sustaining multiple concussions playing indoor at UNC, then became a back-to-back national champion at USC. She’s one of the sport’s best stories right now.

And keep an eye on Geena Urango, the back-to-back 2024 and 2025 AVP MVP and the first-ever NCAA beach volleyball scholarship recipient — who is back with the San Diego Smash alongside Chase Budinger, the former NBA player who has quietly become one of the most dominant men in the league.

Why This Season Feels Different

The 2026 AVP is arriving at a moment when beach volleyball’s profile has never been higher. Indoor volleyball’s record TV numbers this past fall — over 1.3 billion minutes watched during the NCAA Tournament alone — brought an entire new wave of fans into the volleyball ecosystem. A lot of those fans are now looking for more volleyball to watch. The AVP is right there waiting.

The expanded schedule, the new markets, the shaken-up partnerships — it all adds up to a season with genuine unpredictability and a lot of volleyball worth watching. Belmar kicks off the League in less than two weeks.

Mark your calendar. The sand season is just getting started.

Follow VolleyTea for ongoing AVP coverage throughout the 2026 season.