Which is more difficult: corralling a 2-year-old or winning a championship during a tropical storm? Betsi Flint ’14, M.A. ’15, did both on Sunday, Aug. 20, 2023, when she placed a lei on her daughter’s neck after finishing first with her teammate, Julia Scoles, in the AVP Manhattan Beach Open.
As Tropical Storm Hilary bore down on the region, a drenched crowd watched LMU alumna Flint and Scoles, a USC national champion player, defeat Kelley Kolinske and Hayley Harward in two sets, 22-20, 20-13, to win the Association of Volleyball Professionals event.
Flint, a Manhattan Beach Open runner-up in the two previous tournaments, told the Daily Breeze, “But this year was the year and I’m really excited for my daughter [Cora] to see my name on the pier forever, for life. I know she doesn’t care now, but she will down the road and that’s pretty cool.”
Cheering Flint on was her husband, Chase ’14, M.A. ’15, who played three seasons with the Lions basketball team. He was among the hundreds of fans who stayed in the stands despite the driving rain to watch what one spectator described as “the Super Bowl of volleyball.”
Al Lau, CEO of AVP, said the turnout at the tournament, which celebrated its 40th anniversary this year, demonstrates the sport’s huge fan base. “For most places, if you had this much weather, you wouldn’t have full stands,” he told the Daily Breeze. The organizers, coordinating with local authorities, moved the start times to earlier in the morning to beat the brunt of the storm.
