Three U.S. Beach Teams Finish Day 1 at 2-0 in Austria

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

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (July 28, 2010) – The U.S. men’s beach volleyball team of Casey Jennings and Brad Keenan went 2-0 on Wednesday to qualify for the main draw at the 2010 FIVB World Tour A1 Grand Slam in Klagenfurt, Austria.

The U.S. women’s teams of Misty May-Treanor and Nicole Branagh and also Jen Kessy and April Ross went 2-0 in pool play.

Jennings (Redondo Beach, Calif.) and Keenan (Westminster, Calif.), seeded third in the qualifying round, opened Wednesday by beating Bulgaria’s Nikolay Kolev and Valentin Dimov, 21-12, 21-17 in 31 minutes. They then defeated Iver Andreas Horrem and Oivind Hordvik of Norway, 21-16, 21-17 in 44 minutes.

Jennings/Keenan will open main draw pool play on Thursday by facing Spain’s 30^th-seeded Raul Mesa and Inocencio Carrillo Lario at noon (local time) in the first round. They will play 14^th-ranked Marques Silva Harley and Pedro Solberg Salgado of Brazil at 4 p.m. (local time).

May-Treanor (Newport Beach, Calif.) and Branagh (Orinda, Calif.), seeded fourth, defeated Latvia’s 29^th-seeded Inguna Minusa and Inese Jursone, 21-13, 21-18 in 32 minutes. They then topped Anastasia Vasina and Ekaterina Knomyakova of Russia, seeded 20^th, 21-12, 21-16 in 35 minutes.  The pair will finish pool play Thursday against Czech Republic’s 13^th-seeded team, Hana Klapalova and Lenka Hajeckova at 10 a.m. (local time).

Kessy (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) and Ross (Costa Mesa, Calif.), ranked sixth, opened pool play with a victory against Australia’s Tamsin Hinchley and Natalie “Nat” Cook, seeded 27^th,, 21-16, 17-21, 15-11 in 56 minutes. They then played the 22^nd-seed, Marloes Wesselink and Madelein Meppelin of Netherlands and defeated the Dutch pair, 21-13, 21-10 in 33 minutes. Thursday, in the final round of pool play, they will face 11^th-seeded Sanne Keizer and Marleen Van Iersel of Netherlands at 11 a.m. (local time).

Seventh-seeded Angie Akers (Fort Wayne, Ind.) and Tyra Turner (Fort Meyers Beach, Fla.) opened up play with a loss against Russia’s 26^th-seeded Evgenia Ukolova and Maria Bratkova, 21-18, 21-23, 17-19 in 56 minutes. The pair was then topped by Spain’s Liliana Fernandez Stiner and Elsa Macmillan Baquerizo, ranked 23^rd, 11-21, 16-21 in 30 minutes. They will finish pool play facing 10^th-seeded Doris Schwaiger and Stefanie Schwaiger of Austria, Thursday at 10 a.m. (local time).

Ashley Ivy (Arlington, Texas) and Lisa Rutledge (Vista, Calif.) ranked 17^th, lost to 16^th-seeded Kristyna Kolocova and Marketa Slukova of Czech Republic, 19-21, 13-21, in 39 minutes. They then fell to top-seeded Larissa Franca and Juliana de Silva Felisberta of Brazil, 12-21, 18-21 in 40 minutes. They will wrap up pool play Thursday against Austria’s 29^th-seeded Kerstin Eva Maria Pichler and Cornelia Rimser at 9 a.m. (local time).

The men’s main draw will begin Thursday. Top-seeded Phil Dalhausser (Ormond Beach, Fla.) and Todd Rogers (Santa Barbara, Calif.) will first face compatriots Jake Gibb (Bountiful, Utah) and Sean Rosenthal (Redondo Beach, Calif.), seeded 16^th, at 1 p.m. (local time). They will then face Austria’s 32^nd-seeded Clemens Doppler and Matthias Mellitzer at 4 p.m. (local time).

Gibb and Rosenthal will play at 4 p.m. (local time) against Portugal’s 17^th-ranked Luis Miguel Barbosa Harley and Pedro Solber Salgado.

Matt Fuerbringer (Costa Mesa, Calif.) and Nick Lucena (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.), the 12^th seed,  will open up play against Czech Republic’s Petr Benes and Premysl Kubala, seeded 21^st, at 1 p.m. (local time). They will then play Germany’s 28^th-seeded Sebastian Dollinger and Stefan Windscheif at 6 p.m. (local time).

For more information on the FIVB World Tour A1 Grand Slam 10, click here.

Tags: Angie Akers, April Ross, Ashley Ivy, 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