Keenan, Patterson Win Men's Country Quota

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

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (June 28, 2011) – The U.S. men’s beach volleyball team of Brad Keenan and Casey Patterson endured a rainy day and won the U.S. country quota match on Tuesday at the ConocoPhillips Grand Slam Stavanger 2011, part of the 2011 FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour in Stavanger, Norway.

Keenan (Santa Ana, Calif.) and Patterson (Van Nuys, Calif.) defeated the new U.S. beach team of Casey Jennings (Las Vegas, Nev.) and Curt Toppel (Pacific Palisades, Calif.), 22-20, 21-19 in 39 minutes.

Keenan and Patterson advanced to Wednesday’s qualifying round where they will be ranked 16th and face Poland’s 17th-seeded Michal Kadziola and Jakub Szalankiewicz.

On the women’s side, the U.S. team of Brittany Hochevar (Fowler, Colo.) and Lisa Rutledge (Vista, Calif.), ranked 21st in qualifying, lost its first-round qualifying match to Britain’s 12th-ranked Shauna Mullin and Zara Dampney 18-21, 21-19, 15-11 in 53 minutes, the longest match of the day.

The women’s main draw will begin on Wednesday. The U.S. team of Misty May-Treanor (Santa Monica, Calif.) and Kerri Walsh (San Jose, Calif.) is ranked second and will open play in Pool B against Netherlands’ 31st-seeded Marloes Wesselink and Madelein Meppelink. Later on Wednesday they will play Germany’s 18th-seeded Jana Köhler and Julia Sude. May-Treanor and Walsh will complete pool play on Thursday against Switzerland’s 15th-ranked Simone Kuhn and Nadine Zumkehr.

Jen Kessy (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) and April Ross (Costa Mesa, Calif.) are seeded third and will play in Pool C. On Wednesday, they will open pool play against Poland’s 30th-ranked Katarzyna Urban and Karolina Sowala. Later on Wednesday, they will face Greece’s 19th-seeded Vasiliki Arvaniti and Maria Tsiartsiani. On Thursday, Kessy and Ross will conclude pool play against Czech Republic’s 14th-ranked Hana Klapalova and Lenka Hajeckova.

Lauren Fendrick (Carlsbad, Calif.) and Brooke Hanson (Woodland Hills, Calif.) are seeded eighth and will open play in Pool H against Italy’s 25th-ranked Gioria Daniela and Giulia Momoli. Their second match Wednesday will be against Finland’s 24th-seeded Emilia Nystrom and Erika Nystrom. On Thursday, they will conclude pool play against Norway’s ninth-ranked Kathrine Maaseide and Ingrid Torlen.

The first two rounds of single-elimination will also be played by the women on Thursday. The third round and semifinals will be played Friday and the medal matches on Saturday.

The men’s main draw will begin on Thursday with Phil Dalhausser (Ormond Beach, Fla.) and Todd Rogers (Santa Barbara, Calif.) scheduled to compete along with the U.S. team of Jake Gibb (Bountiful, Utah) and Sean Rosenthal (Redondo Beach, Calif.) along with Matthew Fuerbringer (Costa Mesa, Calif.) and Nick Lucena (Santa Barbara, Calif.).

The men’s medal matches will be played on Sunday.

Tags: April Ross, Beach, Beach Volleyball, Brad Keenan, Brittany Hochevar, Brooke Hanson, Casey Jennings, Casey Patterson, FIVB World Tour, Jake Gibb, Jennifer Kessy, Kerri Walsh, Lauren Fendrick, Matt Fuerbringer, Misty May-Treanor, Nick Lucena, Phil Dalhausser, Sean Rosenthal, Todd Rogers