Membership
B.J. Evans
Manager, Media Relations and Publications
Phone: 719-228-6800
E-Mail: bj.evans@usav.org
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (May 15, 2008) - Three U.S. women's beach volleyball teams and two men's teams advanced to the third rounds of their respective SWATCH FIVB World Tour events on Thursday. The women are playing in Seoul, Korea, where the No. 2-ranked team of Nicole Branagh (Orinda, Calif.) and Elaine Youngs (El Toro, Calif.) played two tough matches on Thursday-against Mika Saiki and Chiaki Kusuhara of Japan and Dalixia Fernandez Grasset and Tamara Larrea Peraza of Cuba-winning both 2-1. They will play the United States' seventh-ranked team of Jen Boss (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) and April Ross (Costa Mesa, Calif.) in Friday's third round. Boss and Ross won both of their Thursday matches, 2-0. The 13th-seeded U.S. team of Tyra Turner (Fort Meyers Beach, Fla.) and Rachel Wacholder (Laguna Beach, Calif.) has also made it to the third round after winning their first-round match and upsetting Brazil's fourth-ranked team of Talita Antunes and Renata Ribiero (19-21, 21-19, 15-12) in the second round.
"We were expecting a lot more in Australia, but we did not deliver," Turner told the FIVB about the team's last SWATCH FIVB event finish. "Today we played a lot better, especially in the second match against the Brazilians. We let the first set get away from us after leading the Brazilians 17-11. Rachel started setting me higher and we were able to comeback against a very good team."
Turner and Wacholder will have to face China's fifth-seeded Chen Xue and Xi Zhang in Friday's third round. On the men's side, top-ranked Phil Dalhausser (Ormond Beach, Fla.) and Todd Rogers (Santa Barbara, Calif.) and seventh-ranked Jake Gibb (Bountiful, Utah) and Sean Rosenthal (Redondo Beach, Fla.) have advanced to the third round of their SWATCH FIVB World Tour event in Roseto degli Abruzzi, Italy. Both teams breezed through their first two rounds with 2-0 victories. On Friday, Dalhausser and Rogers will play eighth-seeded Dmitri Barsouk and Igor Kolodinsky of Russia, the team they defeated in the final of the 2007 FIVB World Championship. Gibb and Rosenthal will meet second-seeded Emanuel Rego and Ricardo Santos of Brazil in the third round.
Among the other U.S. men's teams competing in Italy, the teams of Stein Metzger (Honolulu, Hawai'i) and Mark Williams (Los Angeles, Calif.) and Matt Fuerbringer (Costa Mesa, Calif.) and Casey Jennings (Las Vegas, Nev.) advanced through qualifying on Wednesday to make it to Thursday's main draw, where both fell to the consolation bracket with losses. Metzger and Williams, ranked 17th, will play Emiel Boersma and Bram Ronnes of Netherlands on Friday while 20th-ranked Fuerbringer and Jennings will face Norway's 19th-ranked Jorre Andre Kjemperud and Tarjei Skarlund. Complete results and photos are available on the FIVB beach Web site at www.fivb.org/EN/BeachVolleyball/index.asp