A new model for volleyball

The alphabet soup that has become beach volleyball will be stirred again Friday in Hermosa Beach at another USA Volleyball (USAV) tournament.

Try not to confuse it with the presumably defunct Assn. of Volleyball Professionals (AVP), or the upstart newbies calling themselves the National Volleyball League (NVL) and Corona Light Wide Open (no acronym, mercifully).

This weekend’s USAV-sanctioned Hermosa Beach Open is part of the Jose Cuervo beach volleyball series, which has tried to distinguish itself from its domestic competitors in a sport thrown open since the AVP abruptly folded last year on, fittingly, Friday the 13th of August.

It can be confusing to figure out which tournament is being run which weekend, and by whom, with players attempting to bounce seamlessly from one event to another. The scoreboard shows USAV, the governing organization for volleyball in the U.S., hosting three tournaments, while the NVL and Corona Light have each held five events.

It might be this way for a while. And it might eventually work out.

Dave Williams, the managing director of beach programs for USAV, envisions a future landscape as pleasing as the ocean view from his Hermosa Beach office.

Williams wants the sport to follow the pro tennis model, in which USAV sanctions tournaments run by numerous promoters and sponsors in cities throughout the nation, much like the U.S. Tennis Assn.

“To me, that’s a much more efficient model and a much more profitable model for the players,” said Williams, in his second year with USAV after a decade at the AVP. “It’s a much more probable model than somebody going out, getting investment capital, scooping all the sport up again under one umbrella and owning it as one singular tour [like the AVP]. I don’t see that happening.”

Right now, only the Cuervo series is officially sanctioned by USAV, though that might change next summer if the Corona Light and NVL tours also become sanctioned by USAV, which is possible.

The AVP was the name brand for beach volleyball from its birth in 1983 until it folded last summer because of mounting financial losses. The AVP surprised volleyball followers last week by announcing it would hold a tournament Oct. 22 in Huntington Beach, but few specific details were available.

The heaviest of the hitters won’t be at this weekend’s tournament.

Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers, gold medalists at the Beijing Olympics, won’t play because Rogers recently had knee surgery. Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh, gold medalists at the last two Olympics, won’t play because Walsh had recent shoulder surgery.

But this USAV event packs slightly more volleyball power than last month’s tournament in Manhattan Beach.

Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal, the second-best U.S. team on the still-strong international tour, are expected to play, as are Matt Fuerbringer and Nick Lucena, the third-best U.S. team in international play.

Jennifer Kessy and April Ross, the second-best U.S. women’s team on the international circuit, will play in the Hermosa Beach Open, as will the No. 3 U.S. team of Brooke Hanson and Lauren Fendrick.

mike.bresnahan@latimes.com

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