Here's What To Take Away From The 2017 AVP Austin Open

From a local Texas team making it into the main draw to indoor Olympian Reid Priddy recording a career-high fifth-place finish, the 2017 AVP Austin Open was full of excitement for players and spectators alike.

May 22, 2017 by Megan Kaplon

Here's What To Take Away From The 2017 AVP Austin Open

The 2017 AVP Austin Open marked the first time the pro beach volleyball tour had been back to the capital of Texas since 2005. From a local Texas team making it into the main draw to indoor Olympian Reid Priddy recording a career-high fifth-place finish, Austin was full of excitement for players and spectators alike this past week.

Here is our analysis on the top takeaways from the 2017 AVP Austin Open.

1. Who needs a wild-card bid? Not Ed Ratledge and Eric Zaun.

Much was made of the fact that Ratledge and Zaun had more combined points than Reid Priddy and Maddison McKibbin, yet were still forced to battle through the qualifier while Priddy and McKibbin were given a wild-card bid into the main draw. Ratledge and Zaun proved to be more than up to the challenge, however, winning all four qualifier matches in straight sets and then taking down Ty Loomis and Ty Tramblie in the first round of the main draw and ultimately earning a fifth-place finish.

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2. Reid Priddy might just be able to pull off this beach volleyball thing.

Four-time indoor Olympian Reid Priddy has only played two AVP tournaments since declaring his retirement from the indoor game and goal of making it on the pro beach tours. In his first AVP of the 2017 season, he played with Chaim Schalk and didn't advance out of the qualifier, but only a few weeks later, Priddy partnered with Maddison McKibbin and took a career-high fifth.

Read more about Priddy's approach to his beach volleyball career here.

3. April Ross is deadly. Period.

April Ross recently ended her partnership with Kerri Walsh Jennings, but that didn't stop her from winning her 28th AVP tour title. Playing with Whitney Pavlik in Austin, Ross came back from a third-round loss to Kim DiCello and Emily Stockman and advanced all the way to the final, where she and Pavlik won the rematch with DiCello and Stockman 14-21, 21-16, 15-11.

Ross' serving played a huge roll in the championship-match comeback, and the two-time Olympian led the tournament with 23 aces and a .579 hitting percentage. Next up, Ross will start a new partnership with Lauren Fendrick, and the pair will travel to Russia for the FIVB Moscow Four Star.

4. Welcome back, Heather McGuire.

Heather McGuire (formerly Hughes) didn't compete on the AVP tour in 2016, taking the season off to welcome her first child, Jack, into the world. In Huntington Beach, McGuire's first tournament back on tour, she finished seventh with Caitlin Ledoux, and the pair took ninth in Austin.

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5. We should see the AVP in Austin again in the future.

The Austin-area volleyball community showed up big over the weekend. On Thursday night, spectators (and hecklers) packed the outer courts from early in the morning until 11 at night, when locals Troy Schlicker and Rafaa Quesada-Paneque won the final match of the day to advance to the main draw. On Saturday, not even a four-hour rain delay could keep the passionate spectators away. For the finals on Sunday, the stadium was packed, with people standing courtside and sitting up against the stadium rails when they couldn't find seats.

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