This past weekend the AVP event in Long Beach was a 16 team tournament. I played with a new partner Pedro Brazao and we had a very difficult draw in the first round, the gold medalist's from Beijing, Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers. They came out strong against us and we has no answer losing the first set 10-21 ouch. But the next set we got a much better rhythm and had a much better side out game. We were all tied up at 18-18, when Phil reminded us who the best player in the world was by by finishing off the game with a few blocks. The final score of that match was 11-21, 18-21. Our next match was against Matt Olsen and Jeff Nygard. A very tough second round opponent, however in a small draw such as this, there were not going to be any easy games. The match started off neck and neck, side out after side out, until they got on a huge run closing out the first game with ease. The next set we started strong and were all tied up down the stretch. With a few plays not goi ng our way we dropped the set 23-25. As a team I think Pedro and I have a lot of potential, we had some moments where I thought we were really good. In a 16 team event there are no easy draws and we will have to play our best to get the results we want. In Long Beach we finished 13th.