U.S. Teams Go Undefeated on First Day

Maura Gladys July 08, 2009

Maura Gladys
Intern, Media Relations and Publications
Phone: (719) 228-6886
E-Mail: maura.gladys@usav.org

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (July 8, 2009) -U.S. women's beach volleyball teams dominated the first day of main draw play at the 2009 Gstaad Grand Slam, part of the SWATCH FIVB World Tour, in Switzerland. All three U.S. teams went 2-0, giving them excellent position entering the final day of pool play.

Jen Kessy (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.)  and April Ross (Costa Mesa, Calif.), the top seeded team in the event, defeated Dalixia Fernandez Grasset and Imara Esteves Ribalta of Cuba, 2-0 (21-3, 21-12) in their first match. In their second match, they took down Liesbet Van Breedam and Liesbeth Mouha of Belgium, 2-0 (21-16, 21-15)

Fourth-seeded Nicole Branagh (Orinda, Calif.) and Elaine Youngs (El Toro, Calif.) beat Galina Boyko and Anastasia Vasina of Russia, 2-1 (17-21, 21-17, 18-16) for their first victory, and finished their day with a 2-1 (21-23, 21-11, 15-11) win over Inguna Minusa and Inese Jursone of Latvia.

Angie Akers (Fort Wayne, Ind.) and Tyra Turner (Fort Meyers Beach, Fla.) took down the team of Candelas Bibiana and Mayra Garcia of Mexico, 2-0 (21-12, 21-17) in their first match, and beat Hana Klapalova and Tereza Petrova of the Czech Republic, 2-0 (21-16, 21-14) in their second match.

Pool play will conclude July 9, with the first elimination round beginning the same day. Kessy and Ross will take on Vasiliki Arvaniti and Maria Tsiartsiani of Greece for their last pool play game. Branagh and Youngs will face Marleen Van Iersel and Sanne Keizer of the Netherlands, and Turner and Akers will go against Katrin Holtwick and Ilka Semmler of Germany.

The main draw matchups for the men at the 2009 Gstaad Grand Slam were also announced today. Jake Gibb (Bountiful, Utah) and Sean Rosenthal (Redondo Beach, Calif.), who picked up the 16th seed, will face 17th-seeded Linyin Xu and Jialu Li of China in their first match.

Fourth-seeded Phil Dalhausser (Ormond Beach, Fla.) and Todd Rogers (Santa Barbara, Calif.), who recently took the bronze medal at the SWATCH FIVB World Championships, will take on Martin Laciga and Jefferson Bellaguarda of Switzerland.

Casey Jennings (Las Vegas, Nev.) and Matt Fuerbringer (Costa Mesa, Calif.) were seeded 7th and will face Igor Hernandez and Jesus Fañe of Venezuela in their first match.  All matches will take place on July 9.

Nick Lucena (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) and Brad Keenan (Westminster, Calif.), who did not qualify for the main draw, competed in the qualification tournament on July 8. They defeated Jorre Andre ­Kjemperud and Vegard Hoidalen of Norway, 2-0 (21-19, 21-19) in the first round, but lost to Hernandez and Fañe 2-0 (21-14, 21-14) in the second round, eliminating them from the tournament.

Matches can be seen live at Universal Sports.

More information and complete results and photos are available at http://www.fivb.org/EN/BeachVolleyball/index.asp.

 

Tags: Beach, Beach Volleyball, FIVB beach, FIVB World Tour