Kessy, Ross Make it to Moscow Semifinal

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

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (June 12, 2010) – The U.S. women’s beach volleyball team of Jen Kessy and April Ross has advanced to Sunday’s semifinals of the SWATCH FIVB World Tour Grand Slam Presented by Seat  while all four U.S. men’s teams have advanced to the second round in Moscow, Russia.

Kessy (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) and Ross (Costa Mesa, Calif.), the tournament’s second-ranked team, won two matches on Saturday to advance to Sunday’s semifinals, where they will face Brazil’s third-seeded Maria Antonelli and Talita Antunes.

Brazil’s top-seeded Juliana Felisberta Silva and Larissa Franca will face China’s eighth-ranked Chen Xue and Xi Zhang in the other semifinal. The women’s medal matches will also be played Sunday.

Kessy and Ross opened Saturday by defeating Brazil’s 12th-seeded Vanilda Leão and Angela Vieira in a second-round marathon, 2-1 (21-19, 19-21, 17-15) in 1 hour, 7 minutes, the longest match of the tournament.

In the third round, Kessy and Ross took a 21-23, 21-18, 15-6 win over seventh-seeded Sara Goller and Laura Ludwig of Germany in 59 minutes.

Two other U.S. teams did not advance from the third round. Fourth-ranked Angie Akers (Fort Wayne, Ind.) and Tyra Turner (Fort Meyers Beach, Fla.) opened the day by beating Greece’s 15th-seeded Maria Tsiartsiani and Vasiliki Arvaniti, 2-1 (21-23, 22-20, 17-15) in 58 minutes. But Akers and Turner fell in the third set to Xue and Zhang, 21-17, 21-19 in 39 minutes.

Fifth-ranked Misty May-Treanor (Newport Beach, Calif.) and Nicole Branagh (Orinda, Calif.) won their second-round match over Italy’s 27th-seeded Daniela Gioria and Giulia Momoli, 23-21, 21-12 in 40 minutes. But they lost to Antonelli and Talita in the third round, 21-14, 21-11 in 33 minutes.

In the men’s bracket, top-seeded Phil Dalhausser (Ormond Beach, Fla.) and Todd Rogers (Santa Barbara, Calif.) had a bye for Saturday’s first round, and will face their 18th-ranked compatriots Jake Gibb (Bountiful, Utah) and Sean Rosenthal (Redondo Beach, Calif.) in the second round on Sunday. The men’s semifinals and medal matches will be played on Monday, which is a Russian national holiday.

Gibb and Rosenthal advanced when ninth-ranked Dmitri Barsouk and Igor Kolodinsky of Russia forfeited their first-round match on Saturday.

The 22nd-seeded U.S. team of Nick Lucena (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) and Matt Fuerbringer (Costa Mesa, Calif.) also had a bye into Sunday’s second round, where they will face Germany’s 23rd-ranked Sebastian Dollinger and Stefan Windscheif.

The 17th-seeded U.S. team of Casey Jennings (Las Vegas, Nev.) and Brad Keenan (Westminster, Calif.) advanced to the second round by beating Canada’s Richard Van Huizen and Christian Redmann, ranked 27th, 21-12, 21-9 in 30 minutes. Jennings and Keenan will play Poland’s 12th-seeded Grzegorz Fijalek and Mariusz Prudel in Sunday’s second round

The US$600,000 Grand Slam presented by SEAT, is the second of six “major” events on the 2010 SWATCH FIVB World Tour calendar. The winning pairs in each gender will share the $43,500 first-place prizes.

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, Matt Fuerbringer, Misty May-Treanor, Nick Lucena, Nicole Branagh, Phil Dalhausser, Sean Rosenthal, Todd Rogers, Tyra Turner