{"id":394808,"date":"2026-07-11T16:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T16:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/394808\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T16:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T16:24:09","slug":"avp-star-taylor-crabb-is-fired-to-make-run-at-2028-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/394808\/","title":{"rendered":"AVP star Taylor Crabb is fired to make run at 2028 Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Taylor Crabb is no stranger to South California beaches. The Long Beach State alum returns home this weekend to compete in AVP League matches.<\/p>\n

It marks the first time AVP will compete in Long Beach since 2020 and allows players to compete at the 2028 Olympics<\/a> beach volleyball venue.<\/p>\n

Crabb, 34, made his AVP debut in 2013 with his brother, Trevor, and advanced from the qualifier in Manhattan Beach before finishing 25th in his first tournament.<\/p>\n

After years of competing with various different partners, Taylor Crabb and Andy Benesh have delivered the top performances this AVP season.<\/p>\n

The following interview with Crabb has been edited for clarity and length.<\/p>\n

Are you excited to compete in this weekend\u2019s event at Long Beach?<\/p>\n

Crabb: Very excited. A lot of my college teammates and part of the school have reached out, saying that they\u2019re gonna come. So I\u2019m excited to get a chance to play in front of them again.<\/p>\n

When was the last time you were in Long Beach?<\/p>\n

Crabb: I always try to go down there for alumni events or any big games they have. I went to UCLA<\/a> against Long Beach last year, when it was number one versus number two, so I always try to get down there and support them.<\/p>\n

You missed out on the chance to compete in the 2020 Olympics because of COVID-19 restrictions and chose not to pursue a spot at 2024 Olympics. Are you fired up to try to compete in 2028 Olympics, knowing that Long Beach will host the competition.<\/p>\n

Crabb: Yeah, it\u2019s definitely an exciting time having the Olympics in Long Beach<\/a>, and we kind of get to break it in this weekend. As you said, Tokyo didn\u2019t go the way I wanted, but I\u2019m going full force now. I have a great partner in Andy Benesh, who obviously went to the Paris Olympics, and if it weren\u2019t for the Olympics being in Long Beach, and me getting a partner like Andy, I\u2019m not even sure I\u2019d be going for it, but because of those two things, I want to make the most of it.<\/p>\n

You mentioned that if it wasn\u2019t for a partner like Andy, you wouldn\u2019t be going for it. What do you mean by that? <\/p>\n

Crabb: I didn\u2019t feel motivated by playing in all the international events, but now, I think, sitting out kind of lit the fire under me, and I\u2019m really motivated now.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve had different partners throughout your time. What other motivation does Andy give you?<\/p>\n

Crabb: He\u2019s been, in my mind, the top blocker for the US the last four or five years. Seeing the professionalism he brings every day to practice, on and off the court, while traveling and when showing up to tournaments, it rubs off on you and that\u2019s really motivating to see. And I just want to make him proud.<\/p>\n

Why do you love volleyball?<\/p>\n

Crabb: A lot of reasons, but it\u2019s just a feeling I have when I\u2019m out there on the court. It feels natural. It feels like home. I was born into a volleyball family. I had a volleyball in my hands my entire life, so I\u2019ve always just enjoyed it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Taylor Crabb is no stranger to South California beaches. The Long Beach State alum returns home this weekend…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[158755,158756,320,158754,1043,158758,131,133,132,1741,20741,10012,10481,158757,2468,2695,72],"class_list":["post-394808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-andy-benesh","tag-avp-star-taylor-crabb","tag-chance","tag-crabb","tag-event","tag-first-tournament","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-lot","tag-manhattan-beach","tag-olympics","tag-partner","tag-various-different-partner","tag-volleyball","tag-weekend","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}