Two U.S. Beach Teams Still Standing in Brazil

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

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (April 23, 2010) – The U.S. women’s beach volleyball team of Jen Kessy (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) and April Ross (Costa Mesa, Calif.) will play for third place on Saturday while the men’s team of Phil Dalhausser (Ormond Beach, Fla.) and Todd Rogers (Santa Barbara, Calif.) will try to make it to the semifinals at the Brasilia Open, the first stop on the 2010 SWATCH FIVB World Tour.

Kessy and Ross, the tournament’s third seeds who had advanced to Friday’s semifinal without losing a match, fell to Brazil’s top-ranked Juliana Felisberta Silva and Larissa Franca, 21-14, 23-21 in 40 minutes.

Kessy and Ross will play Brazil’s ninth-ranked Maria Clara Salgado Rufino and Carolina Solberg Salgado in Saturday’s bronze-medal match.

Maria Clara and Carolina were responsible for ousting the 31st-ranked U.S. team of Brooke Hanson (Woodland Hills, Calif.) and Lisa Rutledge (Vista, Calif.) from the tournament on Friday, with a 2-1 (21-18, 11-21, 15-8) victory in 55 minutes. Hanson and Rutledge will finish tied for fifth, a great result for a team that had never played in an FIVB main draw before and had to qualify for the Brasilia Open.

On the men’s side, Dalhausser and Rogers dropped to the consolation bracket on Friday after losing to Brazil’s 11th-seeded Pedro Cunha and Thiago Santos Barbosa, 21-14, 21-18 in 40 minutes in the third round.

In their first consolation match, Dalhausser and Rogers eliminated their U.S. teammates, ninth-seeded Jake Gibb (Bountiful, Utah) and Sean Rosenthal (Redondo Beach, Calif.), with a 21-15, 21-18 defeat in 39 minutes. Dalhausser and Rogers will play second-seeded Julius Brink and Jonas Reckermann of Germany on Saturday. Gibb and Rosenthal finish tied for ninth.

Gibb and Rosenthal might have been tired for their match against Dalhausser and Rogers after playing the longest match of the men’s tournament so far, where they defeated top-ranked Reinder Nummerdor and Richard Schuil of The Netherlands, 2-1 (27-29, 23-21, 19-17) in 1:17. Gibb and Rosenthal also beat Italy’s 23rd-ranked Matteo Varnier and Paolo Nicolai, 2-1 (22-20, 13-21, 15-10) in 47 minutes in their first match on Friday.

The 12th-ranked U.S. men’s beach team of Casey Jennings (Las Vegas, Nev.) and Brad Keenan (Westminster, Calif.) also finished the tournament tied for ninth. They opened Friday with a victory over Italy’s 22nd-ranked Matteo and Paolo Ingrosso, 21-15, 21-15 in 34 minutes. Then they beat New Zealand’s 20th-seeded Jason Lochhead and Kirk Pitman, 2-1 (21-19, 20-22, 15-7) in 57 minutes.

But they couldn’t get past Brink and Reckermann and lost, 2-1 (19-21, 21-15, 15-8) in 51 minutes.

Matt Fuerbringer (Costa Mesa, Calif.) and Nick Lucena (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.), seeded 14th, finished tied for 17th after losing to 29th-seeded Anders Hoyer and Bo Soderberg of Denmark on Friday, 2-1 (31-29, 8-21, 15-10) in 1 hour, 7 minutes.

For more information about the FIVB World Tour event in Brazil, visit the FIVB beach volleyball web site.

Tags: April Ross, Beach, Beach Volleyball, Brad Keenan, Casey Jennings, FIVB beach, FIVB World Tour, Jake Gibb, Jennifer Kessy, Matt Fuerbringer, Nick Lucena, Phil Dalhausser, Sean Rosenthal, Todd Rogers, U.S. Beach Team