Jennings, Wong Win in Prague Country Quota

Becky Murdy May 17, 2011

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Photo: Courtesy of FIVB

Casey Jennings and Kevin Wong celebrate together at the Shanghai Open, the second stop on the 2011 FIVB Beach Volleyball SWATCH World Tour.

Becky Murdy
Assistant, Media Relations and Publications
Phone: 719-228-6800
E-Mail: becky.murdy@usav.org

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (May 17, 2011) – Two U.S. beach teams competed on the opening day of the Prague Open, the first single-gender men’s beach volleyball tournament on the 2011 FIVB Beach Volleyball SWATCH World Tour, on Tuesday in Prague, Czech Republic.
 

The U.S. men’s team of Casey Jennings (Las Vegas, Nev.) and Kevin Wong (Honolulu, Hawaii) defeated compatriots Ty Tramblie (Newport Beach, Calif.) and Mike Morrison (Detroit, Mich.) 21-15, 24-22 in the country quota matches.

Jennings and Wong will compete in Wednesday’s qualification round in hopes of earning a spot in the main draw, slated to begin on Thursday. Three U.S. men’s teams have already secured spots into the Prague Open main draw: Phil Dalhausser (Ormond Beach, Fla.) with Todd Rogers (Santa Barbara, Calif.), Matt Fuerbringer (Costa Mesa, Calif.) with Nick Lucena (Santa Barbara, Calif.) and Jake Gibb (Bountiful, Utah) with Sean Rosenthal (Redondo Beach, Calif.).

The U.S. has been near flawless in past Prague Opens, winning the gold in both previous editions. Gibb and Rosenthal won the first event in 2008 while Dalhausser and Rogers won the most recent in 2010.

U.S. women’s beach teams are also taking to the sand this week, competing in the SWATCH FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour’s Myslowice Open in Poland. With no U.S. teams in the country quota, the United States will begin play on Wednesday with newly paired Kerri Walsh (San Jose, Calif.) and Brittany Hochevar (Fowler, Colo.).

The new pairing is a result of a left knee injury to Misty May-Treanor (Santa Monica, Calif.), who is not ready to play. May-Treanor and Walsh were forced to forfeit their medal match at the Olympic Bay Sanya Open on April 30 in China.

Female duos already in the main draw in Poland are Angie Akers (Fort Wayne, Ind.) and Nicole Branagh (Orinda, Calif.), Jennifer Kessy (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) and April Ross (Costa Mesa, Calif.), and Lauren Fendrick (Carlsbad, Calif.) and Brooke Hanson (Woodland Hills, Calif.).

Complete information about the men in the FIVB Beach Volleyball SWATCH World Tour’s Prague Open is available on the FIVB web site.

Complete information about the women in the FIVB Beach Volleyball SWATCH World Tour’s Myslowice Open is available on the FIVB web site.

 

Tags: 2011 FIVB World Tour, 2011 SWATCH World Tour, Beach, Beach Volleyball, Casey Jennings, Jake Gibb, Kevin Wong, Mike Morrison, Nick Lucena, Philip Dalhausser, Todd Rogers, Ty Tramblie