Four U.S. Men's Beach Teams Still Playing in Gstaad

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

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (July 9, 2010) – Four U.S. men’s beach volleyball teams remain alive in the US$600,000 1to1 energy Grand Slam in Gstaad, Switzerland, part of the SWATCH FIVB World Tour.

Meanwhile, all three U.S. women’s teams were eliminated from the competition in the second round.

In the men’s bracket, the U.S. teams of Jake Gibb (Bountiful, Utah) and Sean Rosenthal (Redondo Beach, Calif.) and, ranked 16th and Matt Fuerbringer (Costa Mesa, Calif.) and Nick Lucena (Santa Barbara, Calif.), seeded 13th, both went undefeated in their pools.

On Friday, Fuerbringer and Lucena got an injury forfeit victory over China’s fourth-seeded Penggen Wu and Linyin Xu and advanced straight to the second round, where they will play Spain’s third-ranked Pablo Herrera and Adrian Gavira Collado in the second round on Saturday.

Gibb and Rosenthal  won their final pool play match on Friday over Poland’s 32nd-seeded Michal Kadziola and Jakub Szalankiewicz, 2-1 (21-17, 18-21, 17-15) in 55 minutes and advanced straight to the second round where the U.S. team will play Brazil’s fifth-ranked Pedro Salgado  and Harley Marques on Saturday.

The top-ranked U.S. team of Todd Rogers (Santa Barbara, Calif.) and Phil Dalhausser (Ormond Beach, Fla.) won its final pool play match on Friday, 2-1 (21-16, 19-21, 15-11) in 53 minutes over 17th-ranked Premysl Kubala and Petr Benes of Czech Republic.

However, because of Dalhausser and Rogers’ loss Thursday to Gibb and Rosenthal, they had to play a first-round match, which they won, 21-19, 21-18 in 47 minutes over Spain’s 30th-seeded Inocencio Lario and Raul Mesa.

Dalhausser and Rogers will play New Zealand’s 24th-ranked Kirk Pitman and Jason Lochhead in Saturday’s second round.

Finally, , the 15th-seeded U.S. team of Brad Keenan (Westminster, Calif.) and Casey Jennings (Las Vegas, Nev.) scored an impressive upset in their final pool play match on Friday, defeating Brazil’s second-seeded Alison Cerutti and Emanuel Rego, 21-15, 21-17 in 36 minutes. Keenan and Jennings finished pool play at 2-1 and had to play in the first round, where they beat Latvia’s 22nd-ranked Martins Plavins and Janis Smedins, 21-19, 21-18 in 47 minutes.

On Saturday, Keenan and Jennings will play Russia’s 12th-seeded Igor Kolodinsky and Yaroslav Koshkarev in the second round.

The three U.S. women’s beach teams competing in Switzerland were all eliminated in the second round on Friday.

The second-ranked U.S. team of Jen Kessy (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) and April Ross (Costa Mesa, Calif.) fell to China’s fourth-seeded Chen Xue and Xi Zhang, 21-9, 21-15 in 39 minutes.

The fifth-ranked U.S. team of Misty May-Treanor (Santa Monica, Calif.) and Nicole Branagh (Orinda, Calif.), fell to  Finland’s 20th-seeded Erika Nystrom and Emilia Nystrom, 2- 1 (21-17, 16-21, 16-14) in 55 minutes.

The seventh-seeded U.S. team of Angie Akers (Fort Wayne, Ind.) and Tyra Turner (Fort Myers Beach, Fla.) lost to Germany’s sixth-ranked Laura Ludwig and Sara Goller, 21-15, 21-17 in 42 minutes.

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, 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