Membership
B.J. Hoeptner Evans
Manager, Media Relations and Publications
Phone: (719) 228-6800
E-Mail: bj.evans@usav.org
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Nov. 2, 2011) – Two U.S. women’s beach volleyball will begin play Thursday in the main draw of the Phuket Thailand Open, the final event of the 2011 FIVB Swatch World Tour.
The second-ranked team of Jennifer Kessy (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) and April Ross (Costa Mesa, Calif.) and the 11th-seeded team of Lauren Fendrick (Carlsbad, Calif.) and Brooke Hanson (Woodland Hills, Calif.) will be looking to pick up more points toward 2012 Olympic qualifying in the absence of the top-ranked women’s beach teams.
The U.S. team of Emily Day (Torrance, Calif.) and Heather Hughes (Fallbrook, Calif.), ranked 20th in qualifying, lost in the first round on Wednesday to Slovakia’s 13th-seeded Dominika Nestarcova and Natalia Dubovcova, 19-21, 21-17, 15-11 in 53 minutes.
Main draw play will begin Thursday as Kessy and Ross take on Latvia’s 31st-seeded Inguna Minusa and Inese Jursone and Fendrick and Hanson face Mexico’s 22nd-ranked Candelas Bibiana and Mayra Garcia.
China’s Chen Xue and Xi Zhang are the top-seeded team in Phuket.
Among the team’s not competing in Phuket are Juliana Felisberta and Larissa Franca, who already won the 2011 FIVB Swatch World Tour title and Americans Misty May-Treanor (Santa Monica, Calif.) and Kerri Walsh (San Jose, Calif.), who finished second.
May-Treanor spent October supporting her husband, Matt Treanor, a backup catcher for the Texas Rangers, during the team’s World Series drive. Walsh is recovering from shoulder surgery.