Los Angeles, CA. – Toni Rodriguez secures the first ever AVP League title Sunday afternoon in Los Angeles, California.
Rodriguez qualified for the inaugural AVP League by being one of the top eight women’s pairs in the country. Throughout the season, each team has a women’s and a men’s pair playing their own separate matches with condensed sets to 15 points rather than 21. Both the men’s and women’s results throughout the regular season played a factor in the league seeding with the team as a whole.
With Rodriguez’s success in the regular season, they headed into the championship weekend as the No. 4 seed. Rodriguez swept through the semifinal match against Miami Mayhem, winning in straight sets. 15-12, 15-12. With the title on the line, Rodriguez takes the championship match in straight sets against Dallas Dream, 15-9 and 15-9. But the men’s team of Dallas Dream win their match to tie it at one a piece.
The championship match went to a deciding “golden set.” For this tiebreaker, the women play one half of the set while the men play the other. The women’s pairs started out the first set with Toni Rodriguez and the San Diego Smash having an 8-5 lead going into the switch, where the men’s pair solidified the win with a final score of 15-13.
“Toni’s battle from the bottom of the rankings to the first winner ever is pretty par for the course for her,” said head coach Russell Brock. “She is a grinder and will never quit or give in. This accomplishment is an earned accolade that she has been working towards for the past few years since she graduated. I’m so glad that she will be recognized for not only how hard she has been working but also how good she is at this sport!”
In her time at LSU, Rodriguez was a dual-sport athlete in her time at LSU, playing both indoor and beach volleyball. She played two seasons with the LSU Beach Volleyball team and made quite an impact in the Tigers success. In 2020, she went 10-2 on Court 3 with five wins over AVCA Top 20 teams. Clinched the match on Court 3 to secure the first ever win against UCLA and played a crucial role in helping lift the Sandy Tigs to their first ever No. 1 ranking in both the AVCA and Dig Polls. Rodriguez was granted an extra year of eligibility due to COVID-19 to play another season for the Sandy Tigs in 2021. She went 24-6 overall and came up big in an elimination match at the NCAA Championships on Court 3, helping LSU defeat TCU to keep its season alive.
Kylie Deberg took second place in the inaugural AVP League season. In in time at LSU, Deberg made her mark in the LSU Beach Volleyball program in her short time at LSU. She was a 2023 AVCA First-Team All-American, 2023 CCSA All-Conference Team, 2022 AVCA National Pair of the Week, and earned AVCA Top Flight honors on Court 2 for the 2022 season. Deberg also won the first ever AVCA Fall Pairs National Championship and the USA Volleyball Men’s and Women’s Beach Collegiate Challenge, both with partner Ellie Shank.
“So proud of all our LSU players who participated in the AVP playoffs in this inaugural season,” said Brock. “To have two Sandy Tigs playing in the final is an amazing accomplishment. Congratulations to Toni and Kylie for finishing in that ultimate match.”