U.S. Beach Teams Advance to Semifinals

B.J. Hoeptner Evans
Manager, Media Relations and Publications
Phone: (719) 228-6800
E-Mail: bj.evans@usav.org

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (March 20, 2010) – The U.S. women’s beach volleyball team of Brooke Langston (Memphis, Tenn.) and Heather Lowe (Cypress, Calif.) and the U.S. men’s team of Ivan Mercer (Antelope, Calif.) and John Moran (Phoenix, Ariz.) have advanced to Sunday’s semifinals of the 2010 NORCECA Beach Circuit Event in Grand Cayman on Cayman Island.

The United States’ No. 2 men’s team of Seth Burnham (Santa Cruz, Calif.) and Lucas Wisniakowski (Houston, Texas) lost two matches on Saturday and were eliminated from the tournament.

After winning three matches on Friday, Langston and Lowe remained undefeated on Saturday, defeating Costa Rica’s Natalia Alfaro and Ingrid Morales, 21-19, 21-13 and Canada’s Jamie Broder and Kristina Valjas, 21-18, 22-20.

The U.S. team has not lost a set and will face Mexico’s Vanessa Virgen and Martha Revuelta in Sunday’s semifinal. The winner will play the winner of the other semifinal match between Broder and Valjas and Puerto Rico’s Yarleen Santiago and Dariam Acevedo for the gold medal.

After receiving a bye on Friday, Mercer and Moran began their competition by defeating Cayman Island’s Shervin Rankin and Olney Thompson, 21-18, 21-14. The team lost its second match to Canada’s Martin Reader and Ray Sewell, 16-21, 11-21. But it came back to defeat Jamaica’s Mark Lewis and Dany Wilson, 21-15, 16-21, 15-13 to stay alive.

Mercer and Moran will play Puerto Rico’s Orlando Irizarry and Joseph Gil in Sunday’s semifinal. The winner will play the victor of the other semifinal between Reader and Sewell and their fellow Canadians Maverick Match and Ben Saxton.

Burnham and Wisniakowski fell to Irizarry and Gil, 21-14, 19-21, 13-15 in their first match on Saturday. They fought back to beat Aruba’s Eargenell de Cuba and Mitchel Danie, 21-15, 25-23, and El Salvador’s Jeovanny A. Medrano and David G. Vargas, 19-21, 21-9, 15-10. But they lost their second match to Match and Saxton, 13-21, 9-21.

Sunday’s final matches will be live streamed on the web site of Cayman Islands Volleyball Federation at www.caymanactive.com/norceca.

Click here to view the full results from Saturday’s competition.

Tags: Beach, Beach Volleyball, NORCECA, NORCECA Beach Circuit