Southern Californians Take Titles at Wide Open

USA Volleyball Staff Reports

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (July 11, 2010) – The Corona Light Wide Open made its fifth stop of the tour on July 10-11 in Santa Cruz, Calif. The tournament consisted of Men’s Open, A, AA, and B, Women’s Open, AA, and A, and Co-ed Open/A and 4s.

Ty Loomis (Hermosa Beach, Calif.) and Casey Patterson (Huntington Beach, Calif.) went undefeated in the Men’s Open Division. The pair took home the $15,000 prize after defeating Duncan Budinger (Encinitas, Calif.) and Mike Placek (Cardiff-by-the-Sea, Calif.), 15-4, in the championship set.

Loomis and Patterson won the winners’ bracket with a 15-8 victory over Eyal Zimet (Israel) and Russ Marchawka (San Diego, Calif.)  

Budinger and Placek advanced to the championship match with a surprising victory over Zimet and Marchawka in the finals of the contenders’ bracket in the double-elimination event.

The team of Clint Collins (Santa Cruz, Calif.) and Dave Werdmuller (Santa Cruz, Calif.) won the Men’s AA title. The Men’s A Title went to Jamie Johansen (Huntington Beach, Calif.) and partner Kevin Jones (Huntington Beach, Calif.). The pair also took home the Men’s B title.

In Saturday’s Women’s Open division final, the duo of Christal Morrison (Dana Point, Calif.) and Jennifer Snyder (Dana Point, Calif.) went undefeated on the day, capturing the $15,000 prize and the championship with a convincing 15-3 win over Traci Morin (Los Alamitos, Calif.) and Kathrin Winkler (Los Alamitos, Calif.).

Lindsay Olson (Carlsbad, Calif.) and Marija Vonjnovic (Carlsbad, Calif.) won the Women’s AA crown.

Taking home the title of the Women’s A Division was Yvonne Chu (Santa Monica, Calif.) and Zuzanna Olsen (Santa Monica, Calif.).

Winners in each of the two-person divisions earn an automatic berth into the 2010 US Open of Beach Volleyball, which will be played this September in Manhattan Beach, Calif.

Matt Olson (Carlsbad, Calif.) and Lindsay Olson (Carlsbad, Calif.) walked away with the Co-ed Open title, while Joshua Rosenfel (Berkley, Calif.) and Michelle Boydston (Oakland, Calif.) won the Co-ed A Title.

All winners from Men’s A, AA and B, Women’s AA and A and Co-ed Open/A won one of 10 flat screens provided by Karch Kiraly’s King of the Beach brand.  

Other stops remaining in the 2010 schedule for the tour include Chicago, Ill., Breckenridge, Colo., Long Beach, N.Y., and Point Pleasant, N.J., before the Tour wraps up in September at the U.S. Open of Beach Volleyball in Manhattan Beach, Calif.

For more information on the Corona Light Wide Open, click here.

Tags: Beach, Beach Volleyball, U.S. Open Beach, Wide Open