Women's Beach Teams Advance in Rome

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

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (May 20, 2010) – Two U.S. women’s beach volleyball teams have advanced to the second round of the US$600,000 Foro Italico Beach Volley Grand Slam, part of the SWATCH FIVB World Tour.

Meanwhile, two U.S. men’s teams are battling to make it out of pool play.

Second-seeded Jen Kessy (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) and April Ross (Costa Mesa, Calif.) and fifth-seeded Nicole Branagh (Orinda, Calif.) and Misty May-Treanor (Costa Mesa, Calif.) finished their pools on Thursday with perfect 3-0 records and received a “bye” into Friday’s second round.

Kessy and Ross defeated Netherlands’ 18th-seeded Sanne Keizer and Marleen Van Iersel, 2-1 (18-21, 21-16, 16-14) in 56 minutes on Thursday. They will face ninth-ranked Greta Cicolari and Marta Menegatti of Italy on Friday.

Branagh and May-Treanor beat Austria’s 12th-seeded Sara Montagnolli and Barbara Hansel on Thursday, 21-19. 21-17 in 44 minutes on Thursday. They will play Keizer and Van Iersel on Friday.

Angie Akers (Fort Wayne, Ind.) and Tyra Turner (Fort Myers Beach, Fla.), the tournament’s fourth seeds, won their final pool-play match on Thursday to advance to the first round with a 2-1 record.

In the first round they defeated Czech Republic’s 23rd-ranked Kristyna Kolocova and Marketa Slukova, 21-17, 21-14 in 30 minutes to advance to Friday’s second round where they will have to play top-ranked Brazilians Juliana Felisberta Silva and Larissa Franca.

The men completed their first two pool play matches on Thursday after bad weather on Wednesday forced their postponement.

Jake Gibb (Bountiful, Utah) and Sean Rosenthal (Redondo Beach, Calif.), seeded 16th, started things off by upsetting their countrymen and top-seeds Phil Dalhausser (Ormond Beach, Fla.) and Todd Rogers (Santa Barbara, Calif.), 2-1 (21-19, 18-21, 15-13) in the longest match of the day at 1 hour, 7 minutes.

Dalhausser and Rogers bounced back in their next match, defeating Italy’s 32nd-ranked Gianluca Casadei and Alberto Cisolla, 21-12, 21-12 in 33 minutes.

Gibb and Rosenthal lost their next match to Brazil’s 17th-seeded Pedro Cunha and Thiago Santos Barbosa, 2-1 (16-21, 21-16, 15-11) in 53 minutes.

On Friday, Dalhausser and Rogers will face Cunha and Thiago while Gibb and Rosenthal will play Casadei and Cisolla in hopes of advancing to the first round.

The U.S. men’s team of Casey Jennings (Las Vegas, Nev.) and Brad Keenan (Westminster, Calif.), ranked 21st, lost both of their pool play matches on Thursday.

They fell first to Switzerland’s 12th-seeded Martin Laciga and Jefferson Bellaguarda, 2-1 (18-21, 21-14, 15-12) in 57 minutes. Then they lost to Spain’s fifth-ranked Pablo Herrera and Adrian Gavira Collado, 2-1 (20-22, 21-15, 15-12) in 48 minutes.

They will play Japan’s 28th-seeded Kentaro Asahi and Katsuhiro Shiratori in their final pool play match on Friday.

For more information about the FIVB World Tour event in Brazil, visit the SWATCH FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour web site.

Tags: Angie Akers, April Ross, Beach, Beach Volleyball, Brad Keenan, Casey Jennings, FIVB World Tour, Jake Gibb, Jennifer Kessy, Misty May-Treanor, Nicole Branagh, Phil Dalhausser, Sean Rosenthal, Todd Rogers, Tyra Turner