AVP Tour Preview: Talking with the Top Two Seeds in Beach Volleyball

Just a year ago, 21-year-old Summer Ross and her 26-year-old partner Emily Day never expected to be the number one seed headed into the early action of the AVP Tour opener in St. Petersburg on Friday. “I would have been like ‘What? We won’t even qualify!’ I wouldn’t have believed it,” Ross says, laughing at the idea. Ross and Day began the AVP Tour last season so far outside of the top 12 teams that they had to play through the qualifying round of their first two tournaments just to make it to the main draw. “It’s interesting now that we don’t have to qualify anymore,” Ross says. “It’s like, ‘Wait, I’m supposed to be playing today!’”

The young pair made a name for themselves last season, emerging from the qualifiers to win gold at their first tournament, the Cincinnati Open. This year their biggest competition will be a pair of veterans teaming up for their first full season, Kerri Walsh Jennings, 36, and April Ross, 31 (no relation to Summer). Although Day and Summer Ross experienced success in their first full season as a pair, finishing second twice, the two aren’t yet comfortable sitting in the top seed. “Last year we were below top 10 throughout the entire season,” Day says. “It’s weird. I’ve never been the number one seed.”

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