Bump, Set, Spike - AVP Volleyball Tour Hits Chicago

By Todd McClamroch in News on Jul 21, 2006 9:53PM

The AVP McDonald's Chicago Open Volleyball tour is in Chicago this weekend. Action started on Thursday and continued with preliminary rounds today. The tournament features some of the best men and women beach volleyball players in the world.

Chicagoist decided to head down to North Avenue Beach to check out the action. We were impressed immediately with the quality of play. On every court Chicagoist visited there was hotly contested match with a ton of great action.

The tournament has 10 volleyball courts set-up along the beach including one feature court with stadium seating. Chicagoist caught second seed "Big" Phil Dalhausser and partner Todd Rogers on the feature court taking care of 15 seeded Anthony Medel and Fred Souza. After checking out the feature court we walked around the other courts where you can get right up next to the action. We uploaded our photos from the day to Flickr and used the "chicagoist" tag.

In the women's bracket number one seeded Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor have won their first two matches convincingly and are slated to play next on Saturday morning. Walsh and May won the women's bracket last year.

Daily tickets can be bought at the event or online in advance. Courtside tickets for the feature court are $35 and general admission tickets are $20. Children and students can get in for $10.