Girls' Youth Teams Unbeaten in Portugal

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. girls’ youth beach teams of Lara Dykstra and Rebecca Strehlow and also Summer Ross and Jane Croson are both 2-0 in pool play on Thursday at the 2010 FIVB Beach Youth (U-19) World Championships in Porto, Portugal.

The women’s USA2 team of Dykstra (Hermosa Beach, Calif.) and Strehlow (Long Beach, Calif.), seeded 24^th, defeated top-seeded Mariana Alexandre and Joana Neto of Portugal, 21-16, 21-14 in 33 minutes. The pair continued their hot streak and topped the 12^th-seed, Changning Zhang and Fan Wang of China, 21-18, 21-14 in 34 minutes. They will conclude pool play Friday facing Australia’s Taliqua Clancy and Eliza Haynes, ranked 13^th, at 1 p.m. (local time).

The women’s USA1 team of Ross (Carlsbad, Calif.) and Croson (Lakewood, Calif.) opened up main draw pool play with a 21-23, 21-18, 15-7 victory over Austria’s 22^nd-seeded Katharina Schutzenhofer and Lena Plesiutschnig, in 53 minutes.  The pair defeated the 15^th-seed, Giada Benazzi and Sara Lombardi of Italy, 21-11, 21-17, in 26 minutes. They will resume play Friday as they finish up pool play against 10^th-seeded Tereza Vankova and Eliska Galova of Czech Republic at 2 p.m. (local time).

The men’s USA1 team of Parker Kalmbach (Coto de Caza, Calif.) and Brandon Fuimaono (Long Beach, Calif.), seeded 17^th, was topped by Canada’s 18^th-seeded Garrett May and Nick Del Bianco, 8-21, 20-22, in 36 minutes. Friday, they will face 19^th-seeded Pavel Matejka and Petr Doubravsky of Czech Republic, at noon (local time) and finish pool play against Portugal’s sixth-seeded Sebastiao Alves and Fernando Silva (time is TBD).

For more information on the 2010 FIVB Beach Youth (U-19) World Championships, click here.

Tags: Beach, Beach Volleyball, Jane Croson, Parker Kalmbach, SWATCH FIVB Youth World Championships