Four Youth Beach Teams to Compete in World Championships

Erin Campbell
Intern, Media Relations and Publications
Phone: (719) 228-6864
E-Mail: erin.campbell@usav.org

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (July 27, 2010) – Two women’s and two men’s youth beach teams will begin competing on Wednesday in the ninth annual FIVB Beach Volleyball Youth (U-19) World Championships in Porto, Portugal. The championship matches will be played Sunday.

Summer Ross (Carlsbad, Calif.) and partner Jane Croson (Lakewood, Calif.) will be Team USA1 for the women while Brandon Fuimaono (Long Beach, Calif.) and partner Parker Kalmbach (Coto de Caza, Calif.) will be Team USA1 for the men. Both teams will begin in the Main Draw. 

Lara Dykstra (Hermosa Beach, Calif.) and partner Rebecca Strehlow (Long Beach, Calif.), who will be Team USA2 for the women and David Ryan Vander Meer (Grand Rapids, Mich.) and Jace Olsen (Manhattan Beach, Calif.), who will be Team USA2 for the men, will both have to compete in the qualifying round.

The team of Ross/Croson and the team of Olsen/Kalmbach will be playing in their second consecutive Youth World Championships. Ross and Croson also competed at the 2008 Beach Junior World Championship.

The preliminary qualification round will be Wednesday for both men and women Main draw pool play will begin Thursday and conclude on Friday.

The final 16 teams will begin single-elimination play on Saturday. The semifinal matches and the gold and bronze medal matches will be played on Sunday.

The U.S. team has won two silver medals at the Youth World Championships. The first was won in 2005 by Joey Dykstra (Hermosa Beach, Calif.) and partner Mark Van Zwieten (Pompano Beach, Fla.). In 2008, Jeff Carlson (Newport Beach, Calif.) and Tony Ciarelli (Huntington Beach, Calif.) brought home the second silver.

The World Championships will host 89 teams, 47 women’s teams and 42 men’s teams, from 32 different countries including, Australia, Austria, Belarus, Canada, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Switzerland, Ukraine, U.S. and Venezuela.

Returning to the Championship from 2009 are 10 athletes from around the country who finished amongst the top five in their gender age groups. The Ukrainian men walked away with a gold medal in 2009 while Russia took silver and Spain took third. The German women brought home the second consecutive gold medal in 2009 and Russia took both silver and gold.

For more information about the FIVB Beach Youth World Championships, visit the FIVB beach web site.

Tags: Beach, Beach Volleyball, FIVB World Championship, Jane Croson, Parker Kalmbach, Tony Ciarelli