Semis for Women, Injury for Men in China

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

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (June 10, 2011) – Two U.S. women’s teams have advance to the semifinals of the Beijing Grand Slam, part of the 2011 FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour. However, the U.S. men suffered a blow on Friday when Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers, seeded first, had to pull out of the competition due to an ankle injury to Dalhausser.

After struggling to get out of pool play, top-seeded Dalhausser (Ormond Beach, Fla.) and Rogers (Santa Barbara, Calif.) advanced to the top eight by defeating Russia’s 15th-seeded Yaroslav Koshkarev and Konstantin Semenov, 21-16, 21-19 in 40 minutes.

According to an FIVB release, Dalhausser sprained his left ankle while he and Rogers held a 9-5 lead against China’s sixth-seeded Penggen Wu and Linyin Xu in their second-round match.  After an injury break, the duo returned to the sand to defeat the Chinese team, 21-13, 21-16 in 46 minutes.

But the pair was forced out of their quarterfinal match against fourth-seeds Julius Brink and Jonas Reckermann of Germany.

“Definitely not 100 percent, but World Championships comes every two years,” Dalhausser told the FIVB. “I have to play; I mean we’ll see what happens.”

On the women’s side, third-seeded April Ross (Costa Mesa, Calif.) and Jen Kessy (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) will face fifth-seeded Misty May-Treanor (Santa Monica, Calif.) and Kerri Walsh (San Jose, Calif.) in Saturday’s semifinals.

“We always go for the gold medal,” Kessy said in an FIVB release. “I think we are really happy with where we are right now and we are going to play as hard as we can to get the gold medal.

In round two, May-Treanor and Walsh earned a win over 24th-seeds Cristine Santanna and Andrezza Martins das Chagas of Georgia, 21-14, 21-11 in 24 minutes, the shortest match of the tournament thus far. The Americans then defeated 16th-seeds Simone Kuhn and Nadine Zumkehr of Switzerland, 29-27, 21-12 in 37 minutes in the quarterfinals.

Kessy and Ross collected consecutive wins over Italy’s 25th-seeded team of Gioria Daniela and Giulia Momoli, 21-14, 30-28 in 43 minutes and over China’s eighth-seeded team of Chen Xue and Xi Zhang, 21-16, 25-23 in a 44-minute comeback victory.

“I think it’s difficult to beat China any time, especially in China,” Kessy said in an FIVB release.  “To do it in the Grand Slam, to do it in China and to come from behind is just a test of heart and we believe we can win every match even if we are three or four points down.”

Italy’s 14th-seeded team of Menegatti and Cicolari will compete against Germany’s 31st-seeded team of Katrin Holtwick and Ilka Semmler in the other semi final match. With the outcome of both semifinal matches the bronze-medal and gold-medal match-ups will be determined and contested.  

The U.S. women’s team of Angie Akers (Fort Wayne, Ind.) and Nicole Branagh (Orinda, Calif.) opened up the first round with a heartbreaking loss to Italy’s 14th-seeded team of Marta Menegatti and Greta Cicolari, 21-18, 20-22, 15-13 in 55 minutes. Lauren Fendrick (Carlsbad, Calif.) and Brook Hanson (Woodland Hills, Calif.), seeded 13th, fell to Brazil’s 11th-seeded team of Maria Clara Salgado Rufino and Carolina Solberg Salgado, 17-21, 21-16, 15-12 in 52 minutes in the second round.

It was also a tough day for the other two U.S. men’s team, as both failed to advance to the semifinals after successful performances earlier in the day. Jake Gibb (Bountiful, Utah) and Sean Rosenthal (Redondo Beach, Calif.), seeded 11th, started off by defeating Latvia’s 14th-ranked Martins Plavins and Janis Smedins, 21-17, 18-21, 20-18 in 57 minutes. In the second round, the American’s fell to second-seeded Emanuel Rego and Alison Cerutti, 21-17, 21-15 in 35 minutes.

Casey Patterson (Van Nuys, Calif.) and Brad Keenan (Santa Ana, Calif.), seeded 22nd, also advanced to round two after Brazil’s 13th-seeded team of Pedro Henrique Cunha and Pedro Solberg Salgado were forced to default due to injury. In the second round, Poland’s 24th-seeded team of Mariusz Prudel and Grzegorz Fijalek defeated the U.S. team, 21-17, 21-19 in 37 minutes.

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

Tags: 2011 FIVB World Tour, 2011 SWATCH World Tour, April Ross, FIVB beach, FIVB World Tour, Jennifer Kessy, Kerri Walsh, Misty May-Treanor, Philip Dalhausser, Todd Rogers