Three U.S. Women's Beach Teams Unbeaten

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

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (July 7, 2010) – Three U.S. women’s beach volleyball  teams are unbeaten after the first two matches of pool play on Wednesday at the US$600,000 1to1 energy Grand Slam in Gstaad, Switzerland, part of the SWATCH FIVB World Tour.

Meanwhile, the U.S. men’s beach team of Matt Fuerbringer (Costa Mesa, Calif.) and Nick Lucena (Santa Barbara, Calif.) qualified for the main draw in the men’s tournament.

Jen Kessy (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) and April Ross (Costa Mesa, Calif.), the tournament’s No. 2 seeds, are 2-0 after defeating Great Britain’s 31st-ranked Lucy Boulton and Denise Johns, 21-13, 21-19 in 38 minutes in their first match. Kessy and Ross then defeated compatriots Lauren Fendrick (Carlsbad, Calif.) and Ashley Ivy (Arlington, Texas), 21-17, 21-16 in 44 minutes.

On Thursday, they will finish pool play against Netherlands’ 15th-seeded Sanne Keizer and Marleen Van Iersel. The women’s first round of elimination will also be played on Thursday.

The fifth-seeded U.S. team of Misty May-Treanor (Santa Monica, Calif.) and Nicole Branagh (Orinda, Calif.) is 2-0 in Pool E after beating Belgium’s 28th-ranked Liesbet Van Breedam and Liesbeth Mouha, 21-16, 22-20 in 35 minutes in their first match and Mexico’s 21st-ranked Mayra Garcia and Bibiana Candelas, 21-13, 21-16 in 31 minutes in their second.

May-Treanor and Branagh will complete pool play on Thursday against 12th-seeded Stefanie Schwaiger and Doris Schwaiger of Austria.

Seventh-seeded Angie Akers (Fort Wayne, Ind.) and Tyra Turner (Fort Myers Beach, Fla.) are undefeated after beating 26th-ranked Liliana Fernandez Steiner and Elsa Baquerizo of Spain, 2-1 (18-21, 21-18, 15-11) in 49 minutes, then getting an injury forfeit win  against 23rd-seeded Daniela Gioria and Giulia Momoli of Italy.

On Thursday, Akers and Turner will play Switzerland’s 10th-ranked Sarah Schmocker Meyer Suarez and Isabelle Forrer.

Fendricks and Ivy lost both their pool play matches on Wednesday. Prior to losing to Kessy and Ross, the team fell to Keizer and Van Iersel, 21-18, 21-14 in 38 minutes. Fendricks and Ivy will play Boulton and Johns on Thursday.

On the men’s side, Fuerbringer and Lucena, ranked fourth in qualifying, won two matches on Wednesday to advance into the main draw, which begins Thursday.
First, Fuerbringer and Lucena defeated Portugal’s 29th-seeded Hugo Gaspar and Jose Pedrosa, 21-19, 21-13 in 37 minutes. Then they beat 20th-seeded Alexander Brouwer and Emiel Boersma of Netherlands, 21- 15, 21-13 in 35 minutes.

Fuerbringer and Lucena are ranked 13th in the main draw and will play in Pool M, facing Russia’s 20th-ranked Serguei Prokopiev and Yury Bogatov in their first match on Thursday and Switzerland’s 29th-ranked Martin Laciga and Jefferson Bellaguarda in their second.

The top-seeded U.S. men’s team of Todd Rogers (Santa Barbara, Calif.) and Phil Dalhausser (Ormond Beach, Fla.) will begin pool play on Thursday against U.S. compatriots Sean Rosenthal (Corona Del Mar, Calif.) and Jake Gibb (Costa Mesa, Calif.), ranked 16th.

In their second matches, Rogers and Dalhausser will play Poland’s 32nd-seeded Michal Kadziola and Jakub Szalankiewicz of Poland while Gibb and Rosenthal will face 17th-ranked Premysl Kubala and Petr Benes of Czech Republic.

Finally, the 15th-seeded U.S. team of Brad Keenan (Westminster, Calif.) and Casey Jennings (Las Vegas, Nev.) will play Austria’s 18th-seeded Florian Gosch and Alexander Horst in their first match and Italy’s 31st-seeded Gianluca Casadei and Paolo Nicolai in the second.

More information is available on the SWATCH FIVB World Tour web site.

Medal rounds for both the men's and women's tournaments at www.universalsports.com live at the following times:

July 10
Women's Bronze Match: 8:30 a.m. ET
Women's Gold Match: 9:30 a.m. ET

July 11
Men's Bronze Match: 7:30 a.m. ET
Men's Gold Match: 9 a.m. ET

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