Beach Notes: U.S. Teams Staying in Dominican

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

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (April 22, 2011) – Four U.S. beach volleyball teams that competed at the NORCECA Central Zone Phase of the Continental Cup are staying in Dominican Republic for the NORCECA Beach Circuit event this weekend in Boca Chica; with one exception.

Mark Van Zwieten (Pompano Beach, Fla.) will play on the men’s USA-2 team with Stevo VanderWerp (Grand Haven, Mich.), replacing the injured Matt McKinney (Santa Ynez, Calif.). The men’s USA-1 team will be Bill Strickland (Malibu, Calif.) and Aaron Wachtfogel (Redondo Beach, Calif.).

On the women’s side, Ashley Ivy (Arlington, Texas) and Lisa Rutledge (Vista, Calif.) will be USA-1 and Whitney Pavlik (Laguna Beach, Calif.) and Jenny Kropp (Grand Island, Neb.) will be USA-2.

This is the third NORCECA Beach Circuit event of the year with the two previous being held at Cayman Islands and Guatemala.

The male pairs will be divided into five pools while the female teams will be distributed in four pools with a single elimination format for the main draw.

The women’s teams will play a round robin only to determine their ranking to the main draw. The top three teams of each men’s pool will advance to the bracket with the last spot going to the fourth-placed team with best points ratio.

The Boca Chica Beach Volleyball Tournament has become an annual tradition during the Easter Sunday weekend at the popular beach 20 miles to the east of Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic’s capital.

Last year’s winners were Mexicans Aldo Miramontes and Juan Virgen in the men’s division and Puerto Ricans Yarleen Santiago and Dariam Acevedo among the women’s pairs.

U.S. Women’s Team Wins Silver in Monte Carlo

The U.S. Women’s Beach Volleyball team of Tealle Hunkus (Girard, Ohio) and Heather Lowe (Cypress, Calif.) placed second at the 2011 Monte Carlo Beach Tournament on April 16-17 on Larvotto Beach in Monte Carlo.

The duo competed in five matches, including the championship bout, to finish with a 3-2 record. In the final match, Hunkus and Lowe fell to Rieke Brink-Abeler and Angelina Grun of Germany, 21-14, 21-19.

Hunkus and Lowe have had success as an emerging team, winning the silver medal at the 2010 NORCECA Beach Volleyball event in August in Chula Vista, Calif. The team also competed in the USA Volleyball IDQs last month, going undefeated in pool play and placing third overall. 

The Monte Carle Beach Volleyball Tournament was held April 16-17 and welcomed eight teams, representing eight countries, including Germany, Belgium, Canada, France, Switzerland, The Czech Republic and Latvia, competed in the two-day tournament. 

In the first match of the tournament, Hunkus and Lowe defeated Karolina Rechackova and Michaela Vorlova of the Czech Republic 21-14, 21-15. Inguna Minusa and Inese Jursone of Latvia fell to the U.S. women, 23-21, 24-22 in a tight race to the finish.

In their only match that was decided in three sets, Hunkus and Lowe came up short against Liesbeth Mouha and Katrien Gielen of Belgium 21-17, 18-21, 8-15. Leading into the final match, the U.S. women defeated Switzerland’s Tanja Goricanec and Muriel Graessli, 21-17, 21-19.

Tags: Beach, Beach Volleyball, NORCECA Beach Circuit