U.S. Beach Teams Reach Main Draw in Beijing

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

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (June 7, 2011) – The U.S. men’s beach volleyball team of Brad Keenan and Casey Patterson and the U.S. women’s team of Angie Akers and Nicole Branagh both advanced to the main draw of their respective brackets after play on Tuesday at the 2011 FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour Beijing Grand Slam in China.

Both the men’s and women’s main draw will begin on Wednesday.

Keenan (Santa Ana, Calif.) and Patterson (Van Nuys, Calif.), who won the U.S. country quota match over Casey Jennings (Las Vegas, Nev.) and Kevin Wong (Honolulu, Hawaii) on Monday and are ranked 13th in the qualifying round, won two more matches on Tuesday.

First, the duo defeated Australia’s 20th-seeded Christopher McHugh and Josh Slack, 19-21, 21-15, 15-7 in 54 minutes. Then they topped Germany’s fourth-ranked Sebastian Dollinger and Stefan Windscheif, 21-15, 15-21, 15-10 in 43 minutes.

In women’s qualifying, Akers and Branagh received a bye into the second round, where they defeated Great Britain’s 15th-ranked Shauna Mullin and Zara Dampney, 21-18, 21-15 in 35 minutes.

Akers and Branagh are seeded 12th in the main draw, where they will play in Pool E along with compatriots Misty May-Treanor (Santa Monica, Calif.) and Kerri Walsh (San Jose, Calif.), seeded fifth.

On Wednesday, Akers and Branagh will play Spain’s 21st-ranked Liliana Fernández Steiner and Elsa Baquerizo Macmillan while May-Treanor and Branagh will face Mexico’s 28th-seeded Mayra Garcia and Candelas Bibiana. On Thursday, the U.S. teams will play each other and the international team that it has not faced yet.

Among the other U.S. women’s teams, third-seeded Jen Kessy (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) and April Ross (Costa Mesa, Calif.) will play in Pool C and will face Russia’s 30th-ranked Ekaterina Khomyakova and Evgenia Ukolova and Czech Republic’s 19th-ranked Marketa Slukova and Kristyna Kolocova on Wednesday. The U.S. team will play Italy’s 14th-seeded Marta Menegatti and Greta Cicolari on Thursday.

The 13th-ranked team of Lauren Fendrick (Carlsbad, Calif.) and Brooke Hanson (Woodland Hills, Calif.) will play in Pool D. On Wednesday the U.S. team will play Czech Republic’s 20th-ranked Hana Klapalova and Lenka Hajeckova along with Germany’s 29th-seeded Rieke Brink-Abeler and Angelina Grün. On Thursday, Fendrick and Hanson will face Netherlands’ fourth-ranked Marleen Van Iersel and Sanne Keizer.

In the men’s main draw, Keenan and Patterson are seeded 22nd and will play in Pool O along with compatriots Jake Gibb (Bountiful, Utah) and Sean Rosenthal (Redondo Beach, Calif.), seeded 11th.

Keenan and Patterson will play Gibb and Rosenthal on Wednesday. On Thursday, each U.S. team will play the other two international teams in the pool: sixth-ranked Penggen Wu and Linyin Xu of China and Sweden’s 27th-seeded Stefan Gunnarsson and Hannes Brinkborg.

Among the other U.S. men’s teams, top-seeded Phil Dalhausser (Ormond Beach, Fla.) and Todd Rogers (Santa Barbara, Calif.) will play in Pool J. On Wednesday, they will face China’s 32nd-seeded Lei Li and Bin Liu. On Thursday, they will play 16th-ranked Reinder Nummerdor and Richard Schuil of Netherlands as well as Norway’s 17th-seeded Martin Spinnangr and Tarje Skarlund.

The seventh-ranked U.S. team of Matt Fuerbringer (Costa Mesa, Calif.) and Nick Lucena (Santa Barbara, Calif.) will play in Pool P. On Wednesday, they will play Estonia’s 26th-ranked Rivo Vesik Rivo and Karl Jaani. On Thursday, Fuerbringer and Lucena will face Switzerland’s 23rd-seeded Sascha Heyer Sebastian Chevallier and Spain’s 10th-ranked Pablo Herrera and Adrián Gavira.

More than 110 tandems from 37 countries and regions are expected to take part in the $600,000 double gender event with the Chinese capital welcoming back international beach volleyball for the first time since the 2008 Olympic Games.

The inaugural Beijing Grand Slam is the first Grand Slam and the third of 12 double-gender events on the 2011 FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour.

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

Tags: Angie Akers, April Ross, Beach, Beach Volleyball, Brad Keenan, Brooke Hanson, Casey Patterson, FIVB beach, FIVB World Tour, Jake Gibb, Jennifer Kessy, Kerri Walsh, Lauren Fendrick, Matt Fuerbringer, Nick Lucena, Nicole Branagh, Phil Dalhausser, Sean Rosenthal, Todd Rogers