Membership
B.J. Hoeptner Evans
Manager, Communications
Phone: (719) 228-6800
E-Mail: bj.evans@usav.org
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (May 14, 2012) – The U.S. men’s beach volleyball team of Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal pulled into a tie for a slot on the 2012 Olympic Team after finishing fourth at the Beijing Grand Slam in China, the second grand slam event on the 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 Matt Fuerbringer (Costa Mesa, Calif.) and Nick Lucena (Santa Barbara, Calif.) for the second men’s berth on the 2012 U.S. Olympic beach volleyball team.
Fuerbringer and Lucena, seeded seventh, entered the Beijing tournament with a 100-point lead over Gibb and Rosenthal, but were eliminated in the third round on Saturday.
Both teams now have 4,920 points toward Olympic qualifying. Gibb and Rosenthal are also leading the FIVB SWATCH World Tour with 1,880 points while Fuerbringer and Lucena are second with 1,800.
The U.S. men's beach team of Phil Dalhausser (Ormond Beach, Fla.) and Todd Rogers (Santa Barbara, Calif.) already has enough points to secure the first U.S. men's beach volleyball Olympic berth.
Gibb and Rosenthal opened play on Sunday with a loss to third-ranked Reinder Nummerdor and Richard Schuil of Netherlands. In the third-place match, Gibb and Rosenthal fell to Brazil’s No. 5-seeded Alison Cerutti and Emanuel Rego.
After a one-week break, the 2012 FIVB Beach Volleyball SWATCH World Tour will continue on May 22-27 in the Czech Republic with the men’s Prague Open. There will be two more Olympic qualifying events after Prague: the Moscow Grand Slam on June 7-12 and the Rome Grand Slam on June 13-17.
Complete information about the FIVB World Tour is available on the FIVB web site.