Two Men's Beach Teams Advance to 2nd Round

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

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (July 8, 2011) – Two U.S. men’s beach volleyball teams have advanced to Saturday’s second round of the $600,000 1 to 1 Energy Grand Slam in Gstaad, Switzerland, part of the 2011 FIVB Swatch World Tour.

Meanwhile the two remaining U.S. women’s teams bowed out with losses on Friday.

The fourth-ranked U.S. team of Phil Dalhausser (Ormond Beach, Fla.) and Todd Rogers (Santa Barbara, Calif.) remained undefeated in pool play with a victory Friday over Poland’s fifth-ranked Grzegorz Fijalek and Mariusz Prudel, 21-12, 21-18 in 37 minutes.

Dalhausser and Rogers advanced directly to the second round, where they will face Brazil’s eighth-seeded Bruno Oscar Schmidt and Benjamin Insfran.

Matt Fuerbringer (Costa Mesa, Calif.) and Nick Lucena (Santa Barbara, Calif.), seeded 25th, who pulled off two pool play upsets on Thursday, including one over Bruno and Benjamin, could not repeat the feat on Friday and fell to Netherlands’ 24th-ranked Emiel Boersma and Daan Spijkers, 21-15, 18-21, 15-13 in 50 minutes.

Nevertheless, Fuerbringer and Lucena advanced straight to the second round where they will face Russia’s 14th-seeded Konstantin Semenov and Yaroslav Koshkarev.

After winning their first two pool play matches on Thursday, Jake Gibb (Bountiful, Utah) and Sean Rosenthal (Redondo Beach, Calif.), seeded 12th, lost their final pool play match on Friday, 21-11, 21-15 in 35 minutes to Poland’s fifth-ranked Grzegorz Fijalek and Mariusz Prudel.

Gibb and Rosenthal had to play in the first round, where they lost to Switzerland’s 30th-seeded Martin Laciga and Jonas Weingart, 21-15, 22-10 in 35 minutes.

Casey Patterson (Van Nuys, Calif.) and Brad Keenan (Santa Ana, Calif.), ranked 18th, also finished the tournament with a pool play loss on Friday, 18-21, 21-16, 15-10 in 41 minutes to Canada’s 31st-seeded Christian Redmann and Ben Saxton.

On the women’s side, the third-seeded team of Misty May-Treanor (Santa Monica, Calif.) and Kerri Walsh (San Jose, Calif.) won its second-round match against Brazil’s 12th-ranked Maria Clara Salgado Rufino and Carolina Solberg Salgado, 21-8, 17-21, 16-14 in 43 minutes. However, May-Treanor and Walsh lost in the third round to Italy’s fifth-seeded Greta Cicolari and Marta Menegatti, 21-19, 19-21, 15-11 in 49 minutes.

The top-ranked U.S. team of Jen Kessy (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) and April Ross (Costa Mesa, Calif.) lost its second-round match to Netherlands’ fourth-ranked Sanne Keizer and Marleen Van Iersel, 24-22, 21-16 in 49 minutes.

For more information on the 2011 FIVB Swatch World Tour, visit the FIVB web site.

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