Westmont College alum Avery Drost and partner Diego Perez are the top-seeded men’s team while Geena Urango and Mariah Whalen lead the women’s field for the AVP Next-Santa Barbara Open beach volleyball tournament this weekend at the famed East Beach courts.
Twenty-eight women’s teams and 32 men’s will battle Saturday and Sunday for a first-place prize of $5,000 and Rad Power electric bikes. The total prize pool of $20,000 ($10,000 for each gender) is the largest for a Santa Barbara beach volleyball tournament in several years.
This was made possible by the efforts of 805 Beach, a local business that specializes in beach volleyball training, clinics and competitions. 805 Beach partnered with local businessman Adam Phillips and organizations like the Santa Barbara Volleyball Club in “collaborating with the AVP and securing generous community support to bring the tournament to Santa Barbara,” said Jordon Dyer, the tournament director and a local volleyball player and coach.
Competition began on Friday with three men’s qualifying matches to complete a 32-team main draw.
Local teams Mike Stewart/Dylan Foreman and Rocky Brazier/Nick Schultz advanced along with Christopher Long/Kyle Stevenson in best-of-three matches on Friday morning at East Beach. Long/Stevenson eliminated the San Marcos High duo of Matteo Burdick/Keanu Nguyen.
Saturday’s main draw starts with pool play at 9 a.m. The top 14 women’s teams and top 24 men’s advance to single-elimination playoffs. The quarterfinals, semifinals and finals are all on Sunday. The women’s final is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. and the men’s at 3 p.m.
For Drost, the Santa Barbara Open brings him back to the place where he learned to play the game.
“I had just started school at Westmont College, and some of my new friends were taking the quick shuttle down the hill from Montecito to the beach to hit the ball around,” he wrote in a first-person player profile on the AVP website in 2023. “If you know East Beach, you know those courts have some of the most legendary history in the game. Great players like John Hanley, Henry Bergmann, Karch Kiraly, Dax Holdren, Todd Rogers, and this guy named Phil Dalhausser all played there – along with so many more of the best to ever do it. Of course, I didn’t know one thing about any of that when I first showed up. I just know that from the moment I first played it, I fell in love with the game with all my heart.”
Drost, who played on the indoor club team at Westmont, became a regular at the East Beach courts, soaking up as much knowledge as he could while raising his skill level in doubles.
“Every spare minute, I went to the beach to play. I was always losing, and looking bad doing it,” he recalled. “My indoor friends and I played pickup games with the Nooner crew at East Beach – guys you never had to call ahead to set up with; they were just there. They had all the old-school tricks to throw at you, and they loved beating a young, athletic kid like me.”
This young, athletic kid started to get noticed by the big names on the beach and soon he was practicing with Olympians Dax Holdren, Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser.
He and his college buddy Matt Schroeder met beach volleyball legend Randy Stoklos and did some training sessions with him.
Drost was part of a group of young gun training at East Beach in the early 2000s.
“Besides me and some of my Westmont teammates like Schroeder and Pete Rumford, there were guys from UCSB like Andy McGuire, Ben Brockman, Aaron Mansfield, Armen Zakarian, and this guy from Connecticut named Theo Brunner who was always pretty good at blocking,” he wrote. “There were also SB locals who were a little bit younger than us, like Will Montgomery, Miles Evans, and Jeremy Casebeer. Katie Spieler was just a kid running around on the beach — her dad was part of the Nooner crew! But she was already schooling people, and we all knew she would be special.”
Drost credits East Beach Nooner George Richardson, aka “Jorge,” for encouraging him to follow his heart and go pro.
“I’ll always remember his key message to me: He told me that other players were afraid to fully commit because they didn’t want to deal with the consequences if they failed, but that I had a chance because I wasn’t ashamed to admit that I wanted it with all my heart. It was pretty simple advice, but I’ve noticed that to be true as time goes on,” said Drost.
Now 39, Drost has been playing professional beach volleyball since 2009, competing mostly on the domestic AVP Tour as well as the international FIVB and NORCECA Tours. He’s won five titles and has 96 top-10 finishes in his career.
He’s partnered with some amazing players in the game, including Dalhausser, Sean Rosenthal, John Mayer, Casey Jennings, Ty Loomis, Trevor Crabb, Miles Evans, Andy Benesh, Miles Partain, Ryan Doherty, Chase Frishman, Billy Kolinske, Derek Olson, Eric Zaun, Grant O’Gorman, Eric Beranek, Mark Burik, Gregg Weaver, Travis Mewhirter, David Lee, Evan Cory and others.
This weekend, he’s playing with Diego Perez, a defensive dynamo. They finished third at the AVP Next-Laguna Beach Open last month.
The other local men’s players in the main draw are: Ric Cervantes, playing with Seain Cook; the Santa Barbara High alumni combo of Will Rottman and Ford Harman; Mike Stewart/Dylan Foreman; Troy Fitzgerald, playing with Skyler Kaufman, and the Solvang pair of Andrew Nielsen and Nate Rogers, who recently won their CBVA “AAA” rating in Santa Barbara.
The top local women competing include: Katie Spieler and her cousin Torrey Van Winden, two-time CBVA Santa Barbara Open champions; Taylor Wilson and Cal Poly’s Piper Ferch; the team of Morgan Gatzlaff/Leah Russell; Emma Zuffelato and Cal Poly teammate Margo Smith and the SBCC pair of Lina Husek and Abby Stenz.
On Sunday, the Santa Barbara Open will also host a pro mixed four-person tournament and a men’s and women’s “A” competition.
