Croson, Ross Make History at World Championships

B.J. Hoeptner Evans
Manager, Media Relations and Publications
Phone: (719) 228-6800
E-Mail: bj.evans@usav.org

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (July 31, 2010) – The beach volleyball team of Jane Croson and Summer Ross has become the first U.S. girls’ youth team to advance to the semifinals of the FIVB Youth (U-19) World Championships, which are in Porto, Portugal.

Croson (Lakewood, Calif.) and Ross (Carlsbad, Calif.), the tournament’s third seeds, will play Australia’s 13th-seeded Taliqua Clancy and Eliza Hynes on Sunday. The winning team will play for the gold medal the winners of the semifinal between Russia’s seventh-seeded Ekaterina Karapischenko and Maria Ushkova and Brazil’s 11th-seeded Rebecca Cavalcanti and Juliana Simoes on Sunday.

Croson and Ross, who finished fifth at the 2009 World Championships in Alanya, Turkey, won their quarterfinal match over Spain’s 17th-seeded Angela Lobato and Paula Soria, 21-10, 21-12 in 30 minutes, the shortest of any of Saturday’s women’s quarterfinals.

“It’s good to reach the semifinals, because we want to win all the matches that we participate in,” Croson said. “We want to win the gold medal in these World Championships, but the other teams are all very good, so we have to concentrate even more on playing our game. 

“Summer and I play together as often as our schedule allows and we really make a good team, and when we are able to play even more together, I know we can improve even more.”

In the first round, Croson and Ross topped Austria’s eighth-seeded Lisa Chukwuma and Rosalinda Seidel, 21-17, 21-12 in 29 minutes. The U.S. team is 5-0 in the tournament with two set losses.

The other two U.S. teams playing in the World Championships both lost in the first round on Saturday.

The girls’ USA2 team of Lara Dykstra (Hermosa Beach, Calif.) and Rebecca Strehlow (Long Beach, Calif.), seeded 24th, fell to Giada Benazzi and Sara Lombardi of Italy, seeded 15th, 2- 1 (19-21, 24-22, 15-12) in 48 minutes.

The boys’ USA1 team of Parker Kalmbach (Coto de Caza, Calif.) and Brandon Fuimaono (Long Beach, Calif.), seeded 17th, lost to 21st-seeded Christoph Dressler and Lorenz Petutschnig of Austria, 21-17, 21-17 in 36 minutes.

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

Tags: Beach, Beach Volleyball, FIVB World Championship, Jane Croson, Parker Kalmbach, Summer Ross, Youth World Championships