Women's Beach Team Makes Boca Chica Semifinals

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

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (April 3, 2010) – The U.S. women’s beach volleyball team of Tealle Hunkus and Cayley Thurlby made it through the consolation bracket to advance to Sunday’s semifinals of the 2010 NORCECA Circuit event at Boca Chica, Dominican Republic.

Hunkus (Girard, Ohio) and Thurlby (Naperville, Ill.) fell to Cubans Niriam Sinal and Kirenia Ballar on Friday (21-18, 12-21, 15-4), but came back on Saturday to defeat teams from the Dominican Republic (21-13, 21-11) and El Salvador (21-15, 21-13).

To make it to the semifinals, Hunkus and Thurlby defeated Guatemalans Maria Orellana and Lourdes Ramirez, 21-15, 21-15 in their final match on Saturday. Hunkus and Thurlby will face Sinal and Ballar again in Sunday’s semifinal while Puerto Ricans Yarleen Santiago and Dariam Acevedo will play Costa Rica’s Natalia Alfaro and Ingrid Morales in the other.

After winning its first match on Friday, the U.S. women’s beach team of Emily Day (Torrance, Calif.) and Angela McHenry (Covina, Calif.) was eliminated on Saturday, first losing to Sinal and Ballar, 13-21, 13-21, in the quarterfinals, then falling to Alfaro and Morales in consolation, 13-21, 18-21.

Both U.S. men’s teams competing in Boca Chica were eliminated on Saturday.

Seth Burnham (Santa Cruz, Calif.) and Lucas Wisniakowski (Houston, Texas) defeated Guatemala on Friday (21-15, 21-12); but on Saturday they were sent to the consolation round by Cubans Karell Piña and Sergio Gonzalez (21-12, 21-16), then fell to Puerto Rico’s Daniel Erazo and Eric Hadock (16-21, 21-18, 15-9).

The U.S. men’s team of Marcin Jagoda (Tarzana, Calif.) and Stafford Slick (Andover, Minn.) lost its first match on Friday to Jamaica (15-21, 24-22, 15-10), but came back Saturday to defeat teams from Puerto Rico ((21-16, 32-30) and El Salvador (20-22, 21-18, 15-7) before losing to Yewddys Perez and German Recio of Dominican Republic, 11-21, 14-21.

Tags: Beach, Beach Volleyball, NORCECA Beach Circuit