Membership
B.J. Hoeptner Evans
Manager, Communications
Phone: (719) 228-6800
E-Mail: bj.evans@usav.org
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (May 12, 2012) – The U.S. men’s beach volleyball team of Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal has advanced to Sunday's semifinals of the Beijing Grand Slam, part of the 2012 FIVB Beach Volleyball SWATCH World Tour.
Gibb (Bountiful, Utah) and Rosenthal (Redondo Beach, Calif.), ranked 11th, are battling with the U.S. men’s team of Mat Fuerbringer (Costa Mesa, Calif.) and Nick Lucena (Santa Barbara, Calif.) for the second men’s berth on the U.S. Olympic beach volleyball team.
Fuerbringer and Lucena, seeded seventh, entered the tournament with a 100-point lead over Gibb and Rosenthal, but were eliminated in the third round on Saturday with a 21-15, 21-17 loss in 36 minutes to third-ranked Reinder Nummerdor and Richard Schuil of Netherlands. In the second round, Fuerbringer and Lucena defeated Brazil’s sixth-seeded Pedro Salgado and Marcio Araujo, 21-15, 21-14, in 47 minutes.
Gibb and Rosenthal defeated Germany’s Sebastian Dollinger and Stefan Windscheif, ranked 19th, in the second round, 21-19, 16-21, 15-11 in 51 minutes. In the third round, the 2008 U.S. Olympians beat Latvia’s 17th-seeded Aleksandrs Samoilous and Ruslans Sorokins, 21-10, 23-21 in 35 minutes.
In Sunday’s first semifinal, Gibb and Rosenthal will play Nummerdor and Schuil.
Italy’s 14th seeds Nicolai Paolo and Daniele Lupo, who eliminated the U.S. men’s beach team of Todd Rogers (Santa Barbara, Calif.) and Phil Dalhausser (Ormond Beach, Fla.) in the first round on Friday, will play Brazil’s fifth-ranked Alison Cerutti and Emanuel Rego in the other semifinal.
Complete information about the FIVB World Tour is available on the FIVB web site.