Tough Day at the World Beach for U.S. Youth Teams

Bill Kauffman
Associate Director, Communications
Phone: 719-228-6800
E-Mail: bill.kauffman@usav.org

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (June 24, 2011) – The U.S. beach teams competing at the 10th Annual FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch Youth (Under 19) World Championships experienced a hard day on the sand Friday in Umag, Croatia, leaving just one of four pairs that started the tournament alive in the main draw.

Sara Hughes (Costa Mesa, Calif.) and Justine Wong-Orantes (Cypress, Calif.), seeded No. 2 in the tournament, lost their final Pool B match on Friday to Spain’s 11th-seeded Paula Soria Gutierrez and Maria del Carmen Martinez 22-20, 21-8 in 31 minutes after winning two contests on Thursday.

Hughes and Wong-Orantes finished second in Pool B, enabling the Americans to advance to the first round knockout stage on Saturday. The U.S. duo will face No. 8 seeds Katharina Schützenhöfer and Lena Plesiutschnig of Austria, who finished atop Pool E with a 2-1 record, at 3 p.m. local time. Should Hughes and Wong-Orantes win their first-round match, they will advance to play in the second round later on Saturday with a spot into the Saturday semifinals at stake. The gold- and bronze-medal matches will be played on Sunday.

"We are very proud of Sara and Justine's advancement," USA Volleyball Director of Beach Programs Ali Lamberson said. "This has been a very strong tournament all around and we are eager to see how our young team carries on the USA's tradition of excellence."

Hughes and Wong-Orantes are trying to duplicate the feat of Summer Ross and Jane Croson, who captured the 2010 FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch Youth (U-19) World Championship.

Skyler McCoy (Lakewood, Calif.) and Patrick Carr (Sterling, Va.), seeded fourth in pool play, lost both their matches on Friday to end Pool J with a 0-3 record. The pair opened the second day of pool play with a 21-17, 21-16 loss in 36 minutes to France’s Theophile Carrau and Alexis Gras, who were seeded 16th in the tournament. McCoy and Carr concluded their tournament with a 21-19, 21-15 loss in 28 minutes to Austria’s Lorenz Petutschnig and Tobias Winter, seeded ninth in the tournament.

Nick Porterfield (Los Angeles) and Bennett Bird (San Diego), who advanced through the qualification round to reach the main draw as the No. 22 seed, dropped a pair of matches on Friday to conclude Pool I with a 0-3 record. Switzerland No. 10 team of Benjamin Lerch and Dennis Lerch downed the Americans 21-19, 21-13 in 29 minutes to start action on Friday. Porterfield and Bird were edged by Australia’s No. 15 seeds Samuel Halliday and Lincoln Williams 21-19, 21-16 in 35 minutes.

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 round robin play on Thursday and Friday. The top two teams in each pool and the best four third-place teams advanced to the single elimination bracket.

Additional information on the 2011 FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch Youth World Championships is available at fivb.org.

Tags: Beach, Beach Volleyball, FIVB, FIVB beach, FIVB World Championship, High Performance, USA Beach High Performance Championships, USA Volleyball Beach High Performance, World Championships, Youth World Championships