Three U.S. Beach Teams Reach 3rd Round

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

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Aug. 26, 2010) – Three U.S. beach volleyball teams – two men’s and one women’s -- advanced to the third round of their respective brackets on a rainy Thursday at the US$380,000 Milner Open, part of the SWATCH FIVB World Tour, in The Hague, Netherlands.

On the men’s side, Matt Fuerbringer (Costa Mesa, Calif.) and Nick Lucena (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) protected their top seed in the 32-team double-elimination main draw with a first-round victory over 32nd-ranked Martin Lebl and Mike Placek of the Czech Republic, 23-21, 21-15 in 35 minutes. In the second round, Fuerbringer and Lucena topped 16th-seeded Andrey Maryshev and Dmitri Barsouk of Russia, 26-24, 23-21 in 49 minutes.

In Friday’s third round, Fuerbringer and Lucena will go up against eighth-seeded Brazilians Benjamin Insfran and Bruno Oscar Schmidt. The two teams will be meeting for the second-time this season with Fuerbringer and Lucena defeating Benjamin and Bruno in three sets at the Norwegian Grand Slam in Stavanger.

Casey Jennings (Las Vegas, Nev.) and Kevin Wong (Honolulu, Hawaii), seeded 21st, who advanced to the main draw by winning a “lucky loser” drawing on Wednesday defeated fellow lucky losers Peng Gao and Jian Li of China, seeded 12th, 21-14, 21-19 in 29 minutes.

In the second round, Jennings and Wong defeated 28th-seeded Sam Boehm and Isaac Kapa of Australia, 21-18, 21-12 in 36 minutes. Jennings and Wong are scheduled to face 13th-seeded Tarjei Skarlund and Martin Spinnangr of Norway on Friday for a spot in Saturday’s first semifinal match. 

In the women’s bracket, the 14th-seeded U.S. team of Angie Akers (Fort Wayne, Ind.) and Tyra Turner (Fort Meyers Beach, Fla.) advanced to the third round thanks to a second-round upset of their U.S. compatriots Jen Kessy (San Juan Capistrano, Calif., and April Ross (Costa Mesa, Calif.), 2-1 (21-19, 19-21, 15-13) in 58 minutes. Both teams won their first-round matches.

On Friday, Akers and Turner are scheduled to face Georgia’s 12th-seeded Cristine "Saka" Santanna and Andrezza "Rtvelo" Martins for a chance to go to Saturday’s semifinals.

Kessy and Ross fall to the consolation bracket where they are set to play Poland’s 30th-seeded Katarzyna Urban and Joanna Wiatr on Friday.

Also in the consolation bracket is the United States’ seventh-ranked Nicole Branagh (Orinda, Calif.) and Misty May-Treanor (Costa Mesa, Calif.) after they lost their second-round match to Netherlands’ 10th-seeded Madelein Meppelink and Marloes Wesselink, 2-1 (21-18, 16-21, 15-10) in 43 minutes.

Branagh and May-Treanor are scheduled to play Australia’s 24th-ranked Natalie Cook and Tamsin Barnett Hinchley in the consolation bracket on Friday.

The U.S. team of Ashley Ivy (Arlington, Texas) and Lisa Rutledge (Vista, Calif.), which had to win country qualifier and qualifier matches to make it to the first round, lost both its main draw matches on Thursday.

In the first round, Ivy and Rutledge, ranked 22nd, fell to 11th-seeded Simone Kuhn and Nadine Zumkehr of Switzerland, 2-1 (19-21, 21-11, 15-7) in 48 minutes. In the consolation bracket, Ivy and Rutledge lost to Netherlands’ 27th-ranked Merel Mooren and Rebekka Kadijk, 21-17, 21-19 in 37 minutes.

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

The men’s and women’s gold medal matches from The Hague will be available on-demand on Sunday at UniversalSports.com.

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