Akers, Branagh are FIVB Main Draw Bound

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

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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Aug. 2, 2011) - The U.S. women’s beach volleyball team of Angie Akers and Nicole Branagh advanced to the main draw Tuesday after defeating Latvia’s 17th-seeded team in qualification at the $600,000 FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour A1 Grand Slam presented by Volksbank in Klagenfurt, Austria.

Akers (Fort Wayne, Ind.) and Branagh (Orinda, Calif.) outplayed Inese Iursone and Inguna Minusa of Latvia, 21-19, 21-23, 15-11 in 54 minutes, the longest match of the qualification tournament.

Eight women’s beach teams survived the single-elimination qualification rounds to complete the 32-team main draw. Round-robin pool play is slated to begin Wednesday with semifinals and finals to follow on Saturday.

Akers and Branagh, seeded 16th, will compete in Pool A against 17th-seeds Vasiliki Arvaniti and Maria Tsiartsiani of Greece, Austria’s Cornelia Rimser and Kerstin Eva-Maria Pichler, and tournament top-seeds, Larissa Franca and Juliana Felisberta of Brazil.

The Americans will join three other U.S. teams in the main draw including Jen Kessy (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) and April Ross (Costa Mesa, Calif.), who will compete in pool E against Finland’s 28th-seeded team of Emilia and Erika Nystrom, Italy’s 21st-seeds Gioria Daniela and Giulia Momoli and 12th-seeds Maria Clara Salgado Rufino and Carolina Solberg Salgado of Brazil.

Misty May-Treanor (Santa Monica, Calif.) and Kerri Walsh (San Jose, Calif.) will compete in Pool D with Sophie van Gestel and Madelein Meppelink from the Netherlands, Katrien Gielen and Liesbeth Mouha of Belgium and the 13th-seeds from Germany, Katrin Holtwick and Ilka Semmler.

In Pool C Americans Lauren Fendrick (Carlsbad, Calif.) and Brooke Hanson (Woodland Hills, Calif.) will face Kristyna Kolocova and Marketa Slukova of the Czech Republic, third-seeds Talita Da Rocha Antunes and Maria Antonelli of Brazil and Cristine Santanna and Andrezza Martins das Chaqas from Georgia.

The A1 Grand Slam is a double-gender event with the men’s qualification round taking place on Wednesday. Casey Jennings (Las Vegas, Nev.) and Kevin Wong (Honolulu, Hawaii) will have to out play Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen of the Netherlands and the winner of the match between Italy’s Giorgio Zauli and Rodolfo Cavaliere and Spain’s Raul Mesa and Christian Lario Corrillo to advance into the men’s main draw on Thursday.

Three additional U.S. men’s beach teams have already qualified for the main draw including three-time A1 Grand Slam champions (2006, 2009 and 2010), Phil Dalhausser (Ormond Beach, Fla.) and Todd Rogers (Santa Barbara, Calif.). Also suiting up for the United States will be Jake Gibb (Bountiful, Utah) and Sean Rosenthal (Redondo Beach, Calif.) along with Matthew Fuerbringer (Costa Mesa, Calif.) and Nick Lucena (Santa Barbara, Calif.).

For more information on the A1 Grand Slam, click here.