U.S. Men’s Beach Teams Advance to Round 2

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

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (July 30, 2010) – The U.S. men’s beach volleyball teams of Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers, Nick Lucena and Matt Fuerbringer, and Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal all advanced to the second round of the main draw Friday at the FIVB World Tour A1 Grand Slam 10 in Klagenfurt, Austria.

Meanwhile, two U.S. women’s beach teams finished the tournament on Friday.

Top-seeded Dalhausser (Ormond Beach, Fla.) and Rogers (Santa Barbara, Calif.) finished pool play with an injury forfeit loss to Miguel Maia and Pedro Rosas. Nevertheless, they advanced straight to Saturday’s second round of single elimination where they will play 15^th-ranked Reinder Nummerdor and Richard Schuil of Netherlands at 2 p.m. (local time).

In their final pool play match, Gibb and Rosenthal were defeated by 32^nd-seeded Clemens Doppler and Matthias Mellitzer of Austria, 23-25, 21-13, 13-15 in 1 hour, 3 minutes. However, the duo quickly turned around in the first round and topped Russia’s 13^th-ranked Igor Kolodinsky and Yaroslav Koshkarev, 21-17, 18-21, 15-10 in 54 minutes. They will continue on the hunt for gold in the second round Saturday against second-seeded Penggen Wu and Linyin Xu of China at 9 a.m. (local time).

Fuerbringer (Costa Mesa, Calif.) and Lucena (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.), the 12^th seeds, also lost their final pool play match to Spain’s Pable Allepuiz Herrara and Adrian Gavria Collado, seeded fifth, 20-22, 21-18, 8-15 in 56 minutes. But they took a lesson from Gibb and Rosenthal’s performance and bounced back in the first round. Fuerbringer and Lucena topped Marques Silva Harley and Pedro Solberg Salgado of Brazil, ranked 14^th, 21-17, 21-19 in 40 minutes. They will play in the second round Saturday against Brazil’s fourth-seeded Pedro Henrique Cunna and Thiago Santos Barbosa at noon (local time).

After losing their first two pool play matches on Thursday, Casey Jennings (Las Vegas, Nev.) and Brad Keenan (Westminster, Calif.) lost by injury forfeit to third-ranked Alison Cerutti and Emanuel Rego of Brazil on Friday. They finished the tournament tied for 25^th place.  

Sixth-ranked Jen Kessy (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) and April Ross (Costa Mesa, Calif.) advanced to the third round by defeating Kriystina Kolocova and Marketa Slukova of Czech Republic, seeded 16^th, 21-16, 21-12 in 36 minutes. Kessy and Ross were then defeated by top-seeded Larissa Franca and Juliana da Silva Felisberta of Brazil, 12-17, 19-21, 8-15 in 58 minutes. They finished tied for fifth.

Misty May-Treanor (Newport Beach, Calif.) and Nicole Branagh (Orinda, Calif.), seeded fourth, were defeated by Austria’s ninth-seed Barbara Hansel and Sara “Monti” Montagnolli 20-22, 19-21 in 46 minutes in the second round. They finished tied for ninth place.

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

Tags: April Ross, Beach, Beach Volleyball, Brad Keenan, Casey Jennings, FIVB World Tour, Jake Gibb, Jennifer Boss, Misty May-Treanor, Nicole Branagh, Phil Dalhausser, Sean Rosenthal, Todd Rogers