U.S. Teams Find Success in Qualifiers

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

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (May 3, 2011) – The U.S. men’s beach volleyball team of Casey Jennings and Kevin Wong advanced to the main draw of the China Shanghai Jinshan Open on Tuesday while the U.S. team of Brittany Hochevar and Jen Fopma won the women’s country qualifier.

Jennings (Las Vegas, Nev.) and Wong (Honolulu, Hawaii) had to win the men’s country qualifier on Monday; then won two more matches Tuesday to advance to the main draw of the SWATCH FIVB World Tour event.

Jennings and Wong, ranked second in qualifying, first defeated Japan’s 34th-seeded Yoshiumi Hasegawa and Shinya Inoue, 21-15, 21-14 in 34 minutes. In the second round, the U.S. team topped Greece’s 15th-seeeded Kotsilianos Georgios and Zoupani Nikos, 19-21, 24-22, 20-18 in the longest qualifying match of the day at 58 minutes.

In the first round of the main draw on Wednesday, Jennings and Wong, ranked 21st, will play Netherlands’ 12th-seeded Reinder Nummerdor and Richard Schuil.

In other men’s main draw matches on Wednesday, top-seeded Phil Dalhausser (Ormond Beach, Fla.) and Todd Rogers (Santa Barbara, Calif.) will face 32nd-ranked Lei Li and Bin Liu of China.

Fourth-ranked Matt Fuerbringer (Costa Mesa, Calif.) and Nick Lucena (Santa Barbara, Calif.) will play Canada’s 29th-ranked Christian Redmann and Ben Saxton. And 11th-ranked Jake Gibb (Bountiful, Utah) and Sean Rosenthal (Redondo Beach, Calif.) will go up against Austria’s 22nd-ranked Clemens Doppler and Matthias Mellitzer.

In the women’s country qualifier played on Tuesday, Hochevar (Fowler, Colo.) and Fopma (Bellflower, Calif.) defeated the U.S. team of Tealle Hunkus (Girard, Ohio) and Heather Lowe (Cypress, Calif.), 9-21, 21-14, 15-12 in 47 minutes.

Hochevar and Fopma will be ranked 42nd in Wednesday’s qualifying round and will play Russia’s 23rd-seeded Alexandra Shiryaeva and Ekaterina Syrtseva in the first round.

Due to the withdrawal of the U.S. team of Misty May-Treanor (Santa Monica, Calif.) and Kerri Walsh (San Jose, Calif.), the team of Lauren Fendrick (Carlsbad, Calif.) and Brooke Hanson (Woodland Hills, Calif.) avoided the country quota round and will play in the qualifier, where they are ranked third.

They have a bye in the first round and will play the winner of the qualifying match between Russia’s 30th-seeded Elizaveta Ryabova and Maria Ushkova and Bulgaria’s 35th-ranked Evelina Tcholakova and Maria Todorova.

The women’s main draw will begin on Thursday. The semifinals and medal matches will be played on Sunday.

Complete information about the FIVB World Tour is available on the FIVB web site.

Tags: Beach, Beach Volleyball, Brittany Hochevar, Brooke Hanson, Casey Jennings, FIVB beach, FIVB World Tour, Jake Gibb, Jennifer Fopma, Kevin Wong, Lauren Fendrick, Matt Fuerbringer, Nick Lucena, Phil Dalhausser, Sean Rosenthal, Todd Rogers