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B.J. Hoeptner Evans
Manager, Communications
Phone: (719)
228-6800
E-Mail: bj.evans@usav.org
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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (July 14, 2012) – The U.S. beach volleyball team of Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal came up one set short in its quest to win a third straight FIVB World Tour gold medal and had to settle for silver on Saturday at the smart Grand Slam Berlin.
On the women’s side, the U.S. team of Jennifer Kessy (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) and April Ross (Costa Mesa, Calif.) finished fifth while Lauren Fendrick (Carlsbad, Ind.) and Brooke Hanson (Ventura, Calif.) place seventh.
For the third straight tournament, Gibb (Bountiful, Utah) and Rosenthal (Redondo Beach, Calif.), seeded No. 3, faced Brazil’s top-seeded Emanuel Rego and Alison Cerutti in a World Tour grand slam final. However, unlike the past two tournaments, Gibb and Rosenthal fell on Saturday, 21-17, 15-21, 15-11 in 46 minutes.
“We’ve had a good tournament,” Gibb said. “They played better than us, so good for them. We now have one more, big tournament next week in Klagenfurt so hopefully we will do well then.”
Gibb and Rosenthal share $29,500 for the second-place finish.
Gibb and Rosenthal reached the gold medal match by defeating Poland’s No. 15 Mariusz Prudel and Grzegorz Fijalek, 21-18, 21-14 in 42 minutes in the semifinals on Saturday. Gibb and Rosenthal are scheduled to play next at the
On the women’s side, No. 4 Kessy and Ross opened Saturday with a second-round victory over Germany’s No. 7 Sara Goller and Laura Ludwig, 13-21, 21-18, 15-13 in 57 minutes.
But in the third round, Kessy and Ross fell to Italy’s No. 5-seeded Greta Cicolari and Marta Menegatti, 22-20, 19-21, 17-19 in 1 hour and 3 minutes.
Fendrick and Hanson lost in the second round to Brazil’s No.23-seeded Angela Vieira and Liliane Maestrini, 21-19, 16-21, 15-9-in 55 minutes.
U.S. beach volleyball teams will move on to Klagenfurt, Austria on July 16-22 for the $600,000 A1 Grand Slam. The tournament will be the last FIVB event before the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
For more information on the FIVB SWATCH World Tour, visit the FIVB web site.