Taliaferro, Priddy Grab Main-Draw Berth

UCLA’s Brandon Taliaferro, a four-time All-American setter who played at San Clemente High, and teammate Reid Priddy from Loyola Marymount earned one of eight berths at stake Friday during the qualifying round at the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals tournament at Huntington Beach.

Taliaferro and Priddy defeated David Smith and David Fischer, the fifth-seeded team for the qualifier, 11-9, 11-8 to advance to today’s 32-team, double-elimination main draw of the AVP tournament.

Taliaferro and Priddy also qualified for the main draw last week at Hermosa Beach.

“I haven’t played on the beach in a while,” Taliaferro said. “It will take another couple of weeks yet. Just the conditioning part is tough. And I’m not used to hitting so much.

“My shoulder feels like it’s going to fall off.”

Taliaferro said he has always loved the beach game, but he’s realistic and doesn’t have any long-term aspirations right now, though he plans to play through the summer.

“It’s keeping me in shape,” Taliaferro said. “If one of the guys got hurt on the national team and a spot opened up, then yeah, I think I would have to go.

“I just couldn’t pass that up.”

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Matt Taylor, formerly of Huntington Beach High, and John Braunstein defeated Brad Torsone and Tom Slauterbeck, 11-9, 11-8, to advance to the main draw.

Masui Allen, who played at Orange Coast College, and partner Dane Pearson defeated Eric Christianson and Eric Roberts, 11-1, 11-3, to advance.

Others advancing included the teams of Mike Szymanski and Shawn Garus, the No. 30-seeded team in the 32-team qualifier, who defeated Peter Tourigny and Geoff Pollard, 12-10, 11-4; and Sam Haghighi and Jeff Long, who defeated Mike Desjardins and Jeff Hall, 11-5, 7-11, 6-3.

The teams of Dan Ortega and Brian McDonald and Said Soukane and Sean Burke also advanced.

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The first round of the main draw begins at 9 a.m. today with top-seeded Brian Lewis of Huntington Beach and Canyon Ceman playing Szymanski and Garus. San Clemente’s Karch Kiraly and Adam Johnson play their first match at 10:30 a.m.

The tournament concludes Sunday with the final scheduled for 4 p.m. Admission is free.