Three U.S. Women's Beach Teams Alive in France

B.J. Hoeptner Evans
Manager, Media Relations and Publications
Phone: 719-228-6800
BJ.Evans@usav.org

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (July 23, 2009) – Three U.S. women’s beach volleyball teams remained alive Thursday after the first two rounds of play at the SWATCH FIVB Grand Slam tournament in Marseille, France.

The US$600,000 World Series 13 Grand Chelem, the third of four straight Grand Slam tournaments, is the first “pure” single-elimination international beach volleyball event in nearly eight years.

Wednesday’s competition was postponed by high winds and Thursday’s play was also delayed for four hours. Nevertheless, the women’s second round was completed.

Third-seeded Jen Kessy (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) and April Ross (Costa Mesa, Calif.), defeated Germany’s 30th-ranked Stephanie Pohl and Okka Rau, 2-0 (21-18, 22-20) in 46 minutes.

Kessy and Ross will face 46th-seeded Hiromi Suzuki and Shinako Tanaka of Japan in Friday’s third round.

Fourth-ranked Nicole Branagh (Orinda, Calif.) and Elaine Youngs (El Toro, Calif.) beat Norway’s 29th-seeded Janne Kongshavn and Kathrine Maaseide, 2-0 (21-10, 21-17) in 30 minutes to advance. They will play 20th-seeded Vassiliki Arvaniti and Maria Tsiartsiani of Greece on Friday.

Eleventh-seeded Angie Akers (Fort Wayne, Ind.) and Tyra Tuner (Fort Meyers Beach, Fla.) defeated Canada’s 22nd-ranked Marie-Andrée Lessard and Annie Martin, 2-0 (21-13, 21-19) in 38 minutes on Thursday. They will go up against 27th-seeded Claudia Lehmann and Julia Sude of Germany on Friday.

The only U.S. team to fall on Thursday was Lauren Fendrick (Carlsbad, Calif.) and Ashley Ivy (Arlington, Tex.) who lost to Germany’s eighth-ranked Sara Goller and Laura Ludwig, 0-2 (8-21, 12-21) in 29 minutes.

It was a day of upsets for the several other women’s teams in the competition, as seven of the top-16 seeded teams fell. Mexicans Bibiana Candelas and Mayra Garcia, seeded 33rd, led the way by defeating top-seeded Juliana Felisberta Silva and Larissa Franca of Brazil, 2-0 (27-25, 21-14) in 43 minutes.

The U.S. Men will finally begin play on Friday as only the first round has been completed.

Fourth-ranked Phil Dalhausser (Ormond Beach, Fla.) and Todd Rogers (Santa Barbara, Calif.) will face Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Ruslans Sorokins of Latvia, ranked 29th.

Eighth-seeded Casey Jennings (Las Vegas, Nev.) and Matt Fuerbringer (Costa Mesa, Calif.) go up against New Zealand’s Kirk Pitman and Jason Lochhead, ranked 25th.

Jake Gibb (Bountiful, Utah) and Sean Rosenthal (Redondo Beach, Calif.), ranked 16th, will play China’s Jialu Li and Linyin Xu, ranked 17th.

More information and a complete list of entries are available on the FIVB beach volleyball web site at www.fivb.org/en/BeachVolleyball/index.asp.

Tags: Beach, Beach Volleyball, FIVB World Tour