UPDATED: U.S. Open of Beach Volleyball to Begin Saturday

Staff Reports September 23, 2010

Media Contact: Tip Nunn
Phone: 303-526-0994
E-mail: TipNunn@comcast.net

MANHATTAN BEACH, Calif. (Sept. 23, 2010) – Casey Patterson and Ty Loomis will be the top seeds in the Men’s Open division at this weekend’s U.S. Open of Beach Volleyball when the national championship event is played Sept. 25-26 at the Manhattan Beach Pier.

Patterson (Huntington Beach, Calif.) and Loomis (Hermosa Beach, Calif.) won four Corona Light Wide Open titles this summer in Santa Cruz, Calif., Chicago, Breckenridge, Colo., and Point Pleasant, N.J., and went undefeated in the nine-city nationwide tour this summer.

The top seeds for the Women’s Open divisions will be Erin Gray (Redondo Beach, Calif.) and Kathryn Babcock (Chicago, Ill.). Gray and Babcock won the Wide Open titles in Chicago and Breckenridge.

Other teams expected to compete in the Men’s Open division include 2008 U.S. Open champion Aaron Wachtfogel (Redondo Beach, Calif.) and Sean Rosenthal (Redondo Beach, Calif.), who won the historic Manhattan Beach Open earlier this season; the Austin, Texas duo of Colin Kaslow and Tim Wooliver, who won twice on the Wide Open this summer; and Kevin Wong (Honolulu, Hawaii) and Paul Baxter (Venice, Calif.).

The Women’s Open division draw also includes Kathrin Winkler, the 2008 U.S. Open champion, and her partner Traci Morin. Winkler and Morin captured the Wide Open title at the Huntington Beach stop.

Approximately 15 teams have earned automatic berths into the event after winning one of 32 different qualifier events held across the nation this summer, including the Wide Open, the official qualifying tour of the U.S. Open.

Play will begin at approximately 8:30 a.m. Saturday morning and continue until dusk. Play on Sunday morning will begin at 8:30 a.m. The Women’s Open final is expected to be played Sunday at 1:30 p.m. and the Men’s Open final will get started at 3:30 p.m.

More than 700 beach volleyball players from around the nation will be in Manhattan Beach competing in 14 different divisions of play.

In addition to Corona Light, other sponsors of this year’s US Open of Beach Volleyball are Oakley, Spalding, Green Planet Water, Surftech, Coffees of Hawaii, Sand Socks and Paul Mitchell.

For more information on the 2010 U.S. Open of Beach Volleyball, presented by Corona Light, please visit www.usopenbeachvolleyball.com.

Men’s Open Seeds:
1. Casey Patter / Ty Loomis
2. Colin Kaslow / Tim Wooliver
3. Mike Placek / Matt Motter
4. J.D. Christie / Tyler Lesnecki
5. Sean Rosenthal / Aaron Wachtfogel
6. Sean Scott / Nick Lucena
7. Paul Baxter / Kevin Wong
8. Adrian Carambula / Steve Growtowski
9. Jonathon Acosta / Ty Tramblie
10. Russ Marchewka / Dana Camacho

Women’s Open Seeds:
1. Erin Gray / Kathryn Babcock
2. Heidi Ford / Carla Imperatore
3. Kathrin Winkler / Traci Morin
4. Dana Fiume / Aleksandra Wolack
5. Dianne Denecochea / Britany Hochevar
6. Whitney Pavlik / Jenny Kroup
7. Tara Kuk / Brooke Sweat
8. Jennifer Snyder / Tracy Jones
9. Christal Morrison-Engle / Paige Jensen
10. Megan Wallin / Cayley Thurlby

Tags: U.S. Open Beach, U.S. Open of Beach Volleyball, Wide Open