Membership
B.J. Hoeptner Evans
Manager, Communications
Phone: (719) 228-6800
E-Mail: bj.evans@usav.org
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (April 26, 2012) – Two U.S. men’s beach volleyball teams have advanced to the third round of the Silesia Open, a 2012 FIVB SWATCH World Tour event in Myslowice, Poland.
On Thursday, the U.S. team of Matt Fuerbringer (Costa Mesa, Calif.) and Nick Lucena (Santa Barbara, Calif.) as well as Jake Gibb (Bountiful, Utah) and Sean Rosenthal (Redondo Beach, Calif.) each won their first two main draw matches.
Meanwhile, the U.S. women’s beach team of Angie Akers (Fort Wayne, Ind.) and Brittany Hochevar (Fowler, Colo.) lost its first two main draw matches at the Olympic Bay Sanya Open women’s event in China and finished tied for 25th.
Fuerbringer and Lucena, seeded second, defeated Netherland’s 31st-ranked Jon Stiekema and Christiaan Varenhorst in the first round, 21-12, 21-14 in 30 minutes. In the second round, the U.S. pair defeated China’s 15th-seeded Linyin Xu and Penggen Wu, 21-16, 22-20 in 37 minutes.
In Friday’s third round, Fuerbringer and Lucena will face Netherlands’ seventh-ranked Reinder Nummerdor and Richard Schuil.
Gibb and Rosenthal, seeded 13th, defeated Georgia’s 20th-ranked Renato Gomes and Jorge Terceiro in the first round, 21-14, 21-11 in 33 minutes. In the second round, Gibb and Rosenthal topped Russia’s 29th-ranked Yury Bogatov and Dmitri Barsouk, 21-12, 21-17 in 33 minutes.
In Friday’s third round, Gibb and Rosenthal will play Austria’s 28th-seeded Clemens Doppler and Alexander Horst.
In China, Akers and Hochevar, seeded sixth, fell to Switzerland’s 27th-ranked Tanja Goricanec and Muriel Graessli, 15-21, 21-15, 15-13 in 50 minutes in the first round on Thursday.
In the consolation bracket, Akers and Hochevar lost to Russia’s 22nd-ranked Anastasia Vasina and Anna Vozakova, 19-21, 21-14, 15-12 in 46 minutes.
Complete information about the FIVB World Tour is available on the FIVB web site.