GLENDALE, Ariz. -- John Hyden is tired from the desert heat. He can't sleep at the hotel so he's dozing off between matches. Just what is he going to do if he gets refreshed and rested for Saturday?
Hyden burst onto the scene a year ago and topped his breakout season off by winning the individual format event in Las Vegas. He's at it again in the individual format of rotating partners at the AVP Best of the Beach in the Valley of the Sun this week.
Hyden came in as the tournament's 10th seed but won all three of his pool play matches Thursday night and Friday morning and kept his mark unscathed entering the final day by teaming with Sean Rosenthal for a 21-18, 21-14 victory Friday night against top-seeded Todd Rogers and fourth-seeded Nick Lucena.
"He's just a great player on both sides," said Rosenthal, who has teamed with Hyden for two of his four victories this week. "He was on the national team as a left-side player and he plays out here on the beach as a right-side player. He's one of the best side-out players in the world. He's solid and smooth on both sides."
After dominating at the net Thursday night, Rosenthal switched to blocking full-time Friday night in his second match with Hyden, who becomes a big "small guy" at 6 feet 5. Down the stretch of their Friday win, Hyden went to the side for a tough dig and then popped up to put a kill down the middle.
"I feel like I can play both sides pretty well," Hyden said. "If need be, I can switch up well. If a partner feels better playing on the right or left, I can go left or right. "This whole group is not really blockers so it's fun seeing what you do with them. You have to change your game to go against people. None of us block all year. It's just interesting to see who can do what else well."
Hyden will open Saturday's continuation of the second round by teaming with Rogers at 10 a.m. That will likely mean a move back to the left, where he starred in his indoor career and notched two beach tournament wins.
Hyden emphasized how difficult it would be to repeat but he is rolling after two days of action.
"It was different winning last year because it was my first time winning and climbing up through the ranks and people got to see that I'm a pretty good player. I got a little bit of respect."
They can see how well-rounded his game is this week, when he is hitting more often and breaking out his jump serve. During the season, the jump serves have usually come from his partner, Brad Keenan. It was an up-and-down season for Hyden and Keenan, who finished strong after using the three-week Olympic break to have Keenan see Hyden's trainer. They nearly won this month at the AVP Crocs Cup Shootout in September, making their way to the championship match and leading in a 21-16, 19-21, 18-20 loss.
"If we could steady that out, we could be one of the top teams," Hyden said. "We're already up there but I think we could do better. Toward the end, we came on. Our chemistry's great. We have a great game plan. It's just a matter of execution.
"After that tournament (in Santa Barbara), I thought that's what we have in us. We just have to keep it there. We have to remember what we did in this tournament and go from there."

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