Two U.S. Beach Teams Make Main Draw

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

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Aug. 25, 2010) – The U.S. women’s beach volleyball team of Ashley Ivy and Lisa Rutledge advanced to the main draw with two qualification victories on Wednesday at the US$380,000 Milner Open, part of the SWATCH FIVB World Tour, in The Hague, Netherlands.

Meanwhile, the U.S. men’s beach teams of Casey Jennings (Las Vegas, Nev.) and Kevin Wong (Honolulu, Hawaii) got a lucky loser pass into the main drawl while Eyal Zimit (Kibbutz Ein Hamifratz, Israel) and Mike Morrison (Detroit, Mich.) did not qualify.

After getting a bye in the first round Ivy (Arlington, Texas) and Rutledge (Vista, Calif.), ranked third in qualifying, opened Wednesday with a 21-9, 21-15 victory in 27 minutes over 35th-seeded Elwin Miller and Henriette Iatika of Vanuatu.

Ivy and Rutledge followed that with a 21-16, 21-17 win in 33 minutes over France’s 14th-ranked Eva Hamzaoui and Mathilde Giordano.

Ivy and Rutledge are ranked 22nd in the main draw and will open play Thursday against 11th-seeded Simone Kuhn and Nadine Zumkehr of Switzerland.

Three other U.S. women’s beach teams will also begin main draw play on Thursday.

Fourth-seeded Jen Kessy (San Juan Capistrano, Calif., and April Ross (Costa Mesa, Calif.) are set to play Russia’s 29th-ranked Maria Bratkova and Alexandra Shiryaeva.

Seventh-ranked Nicole Branagh (Orinda, Calif.) and Misty May-Treanor (Costa Mesa, Calif.) are scheduled to play 26th-seeded Tereza Tobiasova and Sona Novakova of Czech Republic.

Angie Akers (Fort Wayne, Ind.) and Tyra Turner (Fort Meyers Beach, Fla.), ranked 14th, are slated to play 20th-seeded Liliana Fernandez Steiner and Elsa Baquerizo of Spain.

On the men’s side, Jennings and Wong, the top-ranked team in qualifying, got a bye into the second round, where they defeated 33rd-seeded Tim Oude Elferink and Richard Kogel of Netherlands, 21-15, 21-16 in 45 minutes.

However, in the third round, Jennings and Wong fell to Brazil’s 17th-ranked Rhooney Ferramenta and Moises Santos, 2-1 (21-14, 14-21, 15-13) in 54 minutes.

However due to late withdrawals of teams from Latvia and New Zealand, Jennings and Wong got a chance at the “lucky loser” draw and ended up winning a spot in the main draw, where they are raked 21st and will play China’s 12th-seeded Peng Gao and Jian Li in the first round.

Zimit and Morrison were ranked 36th in qualifying and won their first-round match over Netherlands’ 29th-seeded Stan van Laanen and Frank van den Outenaar, 21-18, 21-13 in 33 minutes. However, Zimit and Morrison fell in the second round to Australia’s fourth-ranked Christopher McHugh and Joshua Slack, 21-18, 21-17 in 41 minutes.

The U.S. men’s team of Matt Fuerbringer (Costa Mesa, Calif.) and Nick Lucena (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) is the No. 1 seed in the main draw and is scheduled to play 32nd-ranked Martin Lebl and Mike Placek in the first round on Thursday.

For more information on this and other SWATCH FIVB World Tour events, click here.

Tags: Angie Akers, April Ross, Ashley Ivy, Beach, Beach Volleyball, Casey Jennings, FIVB beach, FIVB World Tour, Jennifer Kessy, Matt Fuerbringer, Misty May-Treanor, Nick Lucena, Nicole Branagh, Tyra Turner