Three Beach Youth Teams in Main Draw

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

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (June 22, 2011) – Two of the four U.S. Youth Beach Teams competed in the 2011 FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch Youth (U-19) World Championships qualification round Wednesday in Croatia. The boys’ team of Nick Porterfield and Bennett Bird advanced into the main draw, while the girls’ team of Mikayla Tucker and Alexa Strange had their tournament run cut short after a loss.  

Porterfield (Los Angeles) and Bird (San Diego) were one of four boys’ teams to advance out of the qualification round into the top-24 at the 10th annual FIVB Beach Volleyball Youth World Championships. The duo passed round one with a bye and then defeated Kazakhstan’s team of Sergey Bogatu and Vladislav Pustynnikov 21-13, 19-21, 15-8 in 48 minutes in round two. In the third and final round of qualification, the Americans outplayed Austria’s team of Anton Menner and Christoph Dressler with a 21-17, 17-21, 15-13 victory in 50 minutes.

With Porterfield and Bird’s win, they join Americans Patrick Carr (Sterling, Va.) and Skyler McCoy (Lakewood, Calif.) in the main draw pool play on the boys’ side.  

In Pool J, McCoy and Carr, seeded fourth, will face Poland’s 21st-seeded team of Maciej Rudol and Pawel Pelka on Thursday before battling the 16th-seeds Theophile Carrau and Alexis Gras of France and Austria’s ninth-seeded team of Petutschnig and Winter.

In Pool I, Porterfield and Bird will go up against Poland’s third-seeded team of Maciej Kosiak and Lukasz Kaczmarek on Thursday. On Friday the pair will have a pair of matches against Australia’s 15th-seeded team of Samuel Halliday and Lincoln Williams followed by Switzerland’s 10th-seeded team of Lerch and Lerch.

The U.S. girls’ team of Tucker (Placerville, Calif.) and Strange (San Clemente, Calif) were given the only bye in the first round of qualification on the girls’ side. In the second round the Americans fell to Poland’s ninth-seeded team of Marena Kedozior and Paulina Stasiak 21-17, 21-18 in 28 minutes, eliminating them from the tournament.

Sara Hughes (Costa Mesa, Calif.) and Justine Wong-Orantes (Cypress, Calif.) will compete for the U.S. girls in Pool B of the main draw. The second-seeded Americans will face Poland’s 23rd-seeded team of Kedozior and Stasiak and Canada’s 14th-seeded team of Noca Jackleen Bozinoski and Sydney Krizmanich on Thursday. The duo will then face 11th-seeds Paula Soria Gutierrez and Maria del Carmen Martinez Ferrer of Spain on Friday.

The 2011 edition of the championships are being held in Ugam, Croatia, at the ATP Stadium. The four competition and two practice courts at the complex were filled with 1,900 tons of sand brought in from Cazma, Croatia. A total of 73 teams-38 men and 35 women-from 29 countries were narrowed down to the top-24 in each gender on Wednesday, making up six four-team pools for Thursday and Friday’s round-robin play. The top two teams in each pool and the best four third-place teams will advance to the single-elimination bracket.   

More information on the 2011 FIVB Swatch World Championships is available here, www.fivb.org.

Tags: 2010 U.S. Youth Beach Team, Alexa Strange, Beach, Beach Volleyball, Bennett Bird, FIVB, FIVB World Championship, Justine Wong-Orantes, Mikayla Tucker, Nick Porterfield, Patrick Carr, Sara Hughes, Skyler McCoy