July 28, 2013 - US Players dominated the Asics World Series Cup Sunday afternoon in Long Beach, CA. Jennifer Kessy and April Ross came back from behind to defeat the top ranked Brazilians Talita Antunes and Taiana Lima in 3rd set tiebreaker. US Men's duo Casey Patterson and Jake Gibb dominated and defeated their Latvian opponents in two sets.

With a new twist on an old sport, a special four-team international
competition called the ASICS World Series Cup saw the United States defeat
Brazil in the women’s final and United States beat Latvia in the men’s final
Sunday.  With the week-long ASICS World Series of Beach Volleyball
featuring the week-long $440,000 FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam that concluded
Saturday, the inaugural $100,000 ASICS World Series Cup featured two teams from
the USA in each gender playing in one semifinal along with one team each from
Brazil and Germany in the other women’s semi and in the other men’s semi one
each from Brazil and Latvia.


Winning the women’s ASICS World Series Cup was USA’s April Ross/Jennifer
Kessy while capturing the men’s ASICS World Series Cup was USA’s Jake Gibb/Casey
Patterson.


The winning teams in each gender will split a purse of $30,000, second place
will split $10,000 and the other teams in the first-time event will each split
$5,000.


The 2013 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour returned to the USA for the first
time since 2003 with the event being held for the first time in Long Beach the
purpose-built site located on the expansive glistening sands of Marina Green
Park. With the 2013 FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam, presented by ASICS, in the
record books, the special USA vs. the world ASICS World Series Cup was
nationally televised by NBC TV and the Universal Sports Network.


ASICS WORLD SERIES CUP FINALS

In the women’s nationally-televised ASICS
World Series Cup final, USA’s April Ross/Jennifer Kessy came from behind to
overcome Brazil’s Taiana Lima/Talita Antunes, 15-21, 21-18 and 17-15 in the
60-minute final.  Brazil never trailed in taking the first set rather
easily. In the second set, the USA fell behind again, 5-1 but scored six
straight to take a 6-5 lead. The USA led 15-11 but Brazil rallied and tied the
set at 16-16 but the USA scored five of the last seven points.


In the deciding third set of the women’s final, USA came out of the box to
take leads of 4-1 and 7-4 but Brazil rallied again to take leads of 8-7, 11-9,
12-10 before the USA closed out the set and won the match with a 7-3 run. With
the score tied at 15-15, Ross landed a cross-court kill off of Lima and Kessy
ended it with a cross court kill just away from the diving Antunes, but just
inside the sideline as the partisan packed house in Long Beach rose to their
feet once again like they did so many times during the match.


In the women’s final, USA’s Kessy, who was selected as the MVP of the match,
recorded 30 kills, 13 digs and had three aces while teammate Ross had 12 kills,
seven digs, two blocks and just two hitting errors. For Brazil, Antunes had 11
kills, five blocks, two aces and no hitting errors and her partner Lima had 17
kills, 14 digs and two aces.


After winning the three-set match, USA’s Ross said, “We got off to a slow
start, and that’s what I thought would happen. But then we got a couple of
points and got better throughout the end of the first set. I felt way better
going into the second set. I just served a bunch of aces, probably the most aces
in a match this year. That helped us a lot to get going. I don’t know if it
should, but this takes some of the sting out of losing the FIVB tournament.
After a loss it feels so good to have this extra opportunity to go out on a
win.”


In the men’s cup final, USA’s Jake Gibb/Casey Patterson finally broke open
what appeared to be a very close match to defeat Latvia’s Aleksandrs
Samoilovs/Janis Smedins in two sets, 22-20, 21-11 in 40 minutes. The match
reversed the outcome of FIVB World Tour gold medal match on May 26 in
Corrientes, Arg., won by the Latvians in two sets.


In the close first set, USA never trailed, there were four ties and Gibb
finished it with another crowd-inspiring block. Latvia scored first in the
second set and after going point for point USA took its first lead at 5-4 and
then went on a 10-2 run. During the run, Gibb had three straight blocks for
points at 13, 14, and 15 after having another block for point 11.


In the men’s final, USA’s Gibb, who was selected as the MVP of the match,
recorded nine kills, a game-high seven blocks and one serving ace while teammate
Patterson had 16 kills, seven digs, one block and one ace. For Latvia, Samoilovs
had 10 kills and six digs while Smedins had eight kills, three digs and four
blocks.


USA’s Gibb had high praise for his new teammate Patterson, saying after the
victory, “Casey has been playing insane. He’s new to the FIVB World Tour and he
is playing amazing. You also have to know that those guys (Latvia’s
Samoilovs/Smedins) are some of the best players in the world. So I don't think
they ever really lose confidence. We had a good game plan that our coach put
together and it worked.”


USA’s Patterson had equally as strong comments regarding Gibb, saying, “Jake
was playing the net so well today that there were times when I just wanted to
serve, sit down in a chair and watch him just block another one.”

#worldseriescup #longbeach #FIVB #WSOBV #JakeGibb #CaseyPatt #AprilRoss #JenniferKessy
 

Sean Rosenthal and Phil Dalhausser give brilliant show of dominance at FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam Final on Saturday July 27. This is why we love Beach Volleyball! #FIVB #WSOBV #LongBeach

 

USA's Sean Rosenthal and Phil Dalhausser got the job done Friday in winning three matches including their semifinal over compatriots Jake Gibb and Casey Patterson to move to the gold medal match of the FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam.

PictureUSA's Sean Rosenthal and Phil Dalhausser celebrate
Surprise, surprise, a funny thing happened on the way to the men’s medal matches Friday as beach volleyball duos from Spain and the United States emerged from semifinal wins to take center stage during Saturday’s gold medal finale at the $440,000 FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam, presented by ASICS, double-gender tournament. The FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour is back in the USA for the first time in a decade. Meeting in Saturday’s gold medal match will be USA’S fourth-seeded Sean Rosenthal/Phil Dalhausser meeting Spain’s 14th-seeded Pablo Herrera/Adrian Gavira.



The FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour is back in the USA for the first time in a decade. Saturday’s schedule will include the men’s bronze and gold medal matches along with the women’s semifinals of the special ASICS World Series Cup which will feature two teams from the USA in one semifinal along with teams from Brazil and Germany in the other. The two winners will meet in the cup final on Sunday. The women’s portion of the event ended Friday with an all-Brazilian gold medal match won in three sets and 61 minutesby Taiana Lima/Talita Antunes over sisters Maria Clara Salgado/Carolina Salgado.

The 2013 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour is back in the USA for the first time since 2003. With the event being held for the first time in Long Beach the purpose-built site is located on the expansive glistening sands of Marina Green Park on East Lakeshore Drive. Matches at the FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam, presented by ASICS, are scheduled to start at 10:00 a.m. Saturday with the men’s bronze medal match of the FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam at 11:00 a.m. and the men’s gold medal grand slam match closing the day’s competition at 2:00 p.m.

In the special USA vs. the world ASICS World Series Cup, the women’s semifinals will be played at 10:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. Saturday. While the FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam, presented by ASICS concludes on Saturday, The ASICS World Series Cup on Sunday, the event finishes with the men’s semifinals at 10:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m., the women’s final at 1:30 p.m. and the men’s final at 3:00 p.m. General admission is free to the event. VIP tickets are on sale through the event website at www.wsobv.com.

SEMIFINALS


Battling through three matches on Friday, in the first semifinal Friday afternoon, Spain’s 14th-seeded Pablo Herrera/Adrian Gavira came from behind to upset Italy’s sixth-seeded Olympians Paolo Nicolai/Daniele Lupo in three long sets, 24-26, 21-19, 15-13 in 61 minutes.

In the battle of America in the final semifinal, USA’s fourth-seeded Sean Rosenthal/Phil Dalhausser intensely battled to upset their USA top-seeded compatriots Jake Gibb/Casey Patterson in two tough sets, 21-16, 21-19 in 55 minutes. While it looked like the dramatic match might go three sets with the score tied at 19-19, Dalhausser made sure it ended by scoring his team’s final two points, first on a voracious block and the closer on a powerful service ace. In the semi, Dalhausser had three aces and four blocks while teammate Rosenthal recorded 23 kills and 15 digs.

After their crowd-pleasing victory, USA’s Rosenthal said, “It has been a battle, we played three matches today so that bring on the fatigue but we do get boost of adrenaline knowing that we are playing at home in front of everyone. It was a good match with Jake and Casey, well played by both sides it just happened that we made some key plays at the end to close out each set. It happens in volleyball, you just have to go in knowing that it’s only another match. They are having a great season and we are having a pretty good one too.”

BRONZE MEDAL MATCHUP


In Saturday’s 11 a.m. FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam bronze medal match it will be USA’s Gibb/Patterson playing against Italy’s Nicolai/Lupo. All veteran players, Gibb/Patterson are a new team this season.
QUARTERFINALS
In the second of three matches for Friday’s winning teams, USA’s Rosenthal/Dalhausser held on to knock off Brazil’s fifth-seeded 2011 FIVB World Champions Alison Cerutti/Emanuel Rego, 22-20, 14-21, 15-9 in 53 minutes; USA’s Gibb/ Patterson beat Norway’s 18th-seeded Iver Horrem/Geir Eithun, 21-13, 21-17 in 36 minutes; Italy’s Nicolai/Lupo stood their ground against Latvia’s third-seeded Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Janis Smedins to win in three sets, 21-17, 19-21, 16-14 in 50 minutes and Spain’s gritty Herrera/ Gavira fought and scrapped their way past Italy’s 32nd-seeded Alex Ranghieri/Andrea Tomatis, 21-12, 17-21, 15-10 in 48 minutes

ROUND OF 16 RESULTS


Friday’s long day began early with the men’s round of 16 that heated up the sand for the day’s competition with the losing teams being eliminated and credited with official ninth-place finishes.

In the boiling action, in the first four matches of the round, USA’s Gibb/Patterson stopped Germany’s 13th-seeded Mischa Urbatzka/Markus Bockermann, 21-12, 21-15 in 34 minutes;  Norway’s Horrem/ Eithun upset Austria’s eighth-seeded Robin Seidl/Alexander Huber, 21-18, 13-21, 20-18 in 61 minutes; Brazil’s Alison/Rego eliminated USA’s 11th-seeded Todd Rogers/Ryan Doherty, 21-9, 21-15 in 31 minutes and USA’s Rosenthal/Dalhausser charged past Canada’s 12th-seeded Chaim Schalk/Ben Saxton, 21-13, 21-15 in 38 minutes.

The second four matches in the round of 16, Latvia’s Samoilovs/ Smedins defeated Brazil’s seventh-seeded Vitor Felipe/Evandro Goncalves, 22-20, 21-15 in 43 minutes; Italy’s Nicolai/ Lupo toppled Brazil’s ninth-seeded Edson Barros/Alvaro Filho, 21-14, 12-21, 16-14 in 46 minutes; Italy’s Ranghieri/Tomatis stunned Australia’s 10th-seeded Christopher McHugh/Isaac Kapa, 16-21, 23-21, 18-16 in 56 minutes and Spain’s Herrera/Gavira knocked out Brazil’s second-seeded 2013 FIVB World Tour point leaders Pedro Salgado/Bruno Schmidt.

The FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam, presented by ASICS is the showcase part of the ASICS World Series of Beach Volleyball, a SoCal beach festival that includes 4-person and 6-person recreational events, a youth tournament and nightly music concerts. Also part of the event is the inaugural ASICS World Series Cup featuring two teams in each gender from the USA against two international teams with the finals next Sunday. In addition to the international live FIVB telecasts, the event also includes 23 hours of live or same-day telecasts split between NBC Sports Network, Universal Network and NBC TV Network.

 

The 2013 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour is back in the USA for the first time in a decade. So far it is serving up some great action and many surprises. Three time Olympic Gold Medalist Kerri Walsh dropped out last minute with an injury - leaving the field wide open.

PictureMaria Antonelli (L) of Brazil spikes the ball over Carolina Salgado of Brazil
Four women’s teams remaining out of the original 32 that started the main draw
following Thursday’s round of 16 and quarterfinals at the $440,000 FIVB Long Beach
Grand Slam double-gender tournament. Friday the FIVB Beach Volleyball World
Tour is back in the USA for the first time in a decade. While the men’s teams played
the last of three pool play matches on Thursday and the first single elimination match,
the women baked and battled under the warm Southern California sunshine. Friday
will be the semifinals and medal matches to conclude the women’s portion of the event.

The 2013 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour is back in the USA for the first
time since 2003. With the event being held for the first time in Long Beach the
purpose-built site is located on the expansive glistening sands of Marina Green
Park on East Lakeshore Drive. Matches at the FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam,
presented by ASICS, are scheduled to start at 8:15 a.m. Friday with the men’s
round of 16 followed at 1:00 p.m. with the men’s quarterfinals and the men’s
semifinals will be at 4:15 p.m. and 5:15 p.m.


The women’s semifinals will be held at 10:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. with the
women’s bronze at 2 p.m. followed by the women’s gold medal match at 3:00 p.m.
General admission is free to the event. VIP tickets are on sale through the
event website at www.wsobv.com.


With final four placements secured, meeting in the women’s semifinals Friday
will be Germany’s No. 7-seeded Katrin Holtwick/Ilka Semmler vs. Brazil’s No.
4-seeded Maria Clara Salgado/Carolina Salgado and No. 2-seeded Taiana
Lima/Talita Antunes vs. USA’s No. 15-seeded Emily Day/Summer Ross.


To earn their final four spots by winning their respective Thursday’s
quarterfinal matches, Germany’s Holtwick/Semmler stopped USA’s No. 8-seeded
Lauren Fendrick/Brittany Hochevar, 21-16, 21-18 in 38 minutes; Brazil’s Salgado
sisters defeated No. 5-seeded compatriots Agatha Bednarczuk/Maria Antonelli,
23-21, 31-29 in 56 minutes; USA’s Day/Ross came from behind to upset Slovak
Republic’s No. 13-seeded Natalia Dubovcova/Dominika Nextarcova, 17-21, 21-13,
15-11 in 46 minutes and Brazil’s Lima/Antunes finally overcame Canada’s No.
24-seeded Sarah Pavan/Heather Bansley, 17-21, 21-15, 15-11 in 55 minutes. The
losing teams in the quarterfinals all leave Long Beach with official fifth place
finishes.


In the women’s round of 16 matchups that started Thursday’s competition
schedule, Germany’s Holtwick/Semmler eliminated Switzerland’s No. 17-seeded
Isabelle Forrer/Anouk Verge-Depre, 25-27, 21-18, 15-5 in 54 minutes; USA’s
Fendrick/Hochevar defeated No. 12-seeded compatriots Jennifer Fopma/Brooke
Sweat, 21-18, 22-20 in 37 minutes; Brazil’s Bednarczuk/Antonelli eliminated
USA’s top-seeded April Ross/Jennifer Kessy, 21-15, 13-21, 16-14 in 52 minutes
and Brazil’s Salgado sisters eliminated Switzerland’s No. 9-seeded Nadine
Zumkehr/Joana Heidrich, 21-15, 21-19 in 38 minutes.


In the second four matches of the round of 16 Thursday morning, Slovak
Republic’s Dubovcova/Nextarcova upset Brazil’s No. 3-seeded, Barbara
Seixas/Liliane Maestrini, 19-21, 21-16, 15-12 in 54 minutes; USA’s Day/Ross
upset Spain’s No. 6-seeded Liliana Fernandez/Elsa Baquerizo, 21-18, 21-15 in 39
minutes; Canada’s Pavan/Bansley outlasted Czech Republic’s No. 10-seeded
Kristyna Kolocova/Marketa Slukova, 21-18, 23-25, 15-11 in 60 minutes and
Brazil’s Lima/Antunes fought through a comeback attempt to beat Germany’s No.
20-seeded Jana Kohler/Anni Schumacher, 21-6, 19-21, 15-12 in 47 minutes.


After recording their fifth straight win in Long Beach with their
quarterfinal victory, Brazil’s Antunes, who with her teammate Taina Lima lead
the point standings in the 2013 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour, said, “We
started better than Canada but they rallied to catch-up once we started making
mistakes in the first set. At that point we called a time out and said to one
another ‘lets stay focused here, they are doing well, but we can do this, it is
for the quarterfinals’. We just had to give ourselves the best chance to win.
You cannot get ahead of yourself. You must play one point at a time.”


In looking ahead to Friday’s semifinal against USA’s Day/Ross, Antunes
commented, “I think this will be a tough match! Everyone will be here to support
USA. Yet, I think it will still be fun, regardless. We did play against them in
the pool (and won) but this will be a completely different match, everything is
tougher at this point. We just need to prepare ourselves for the tough
match.”


The FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam, presented by ASICS, is the showcase part of
the ASICS World Series of Beach Volleyball, a SoCal beach festival that includes
4-person and 6-person recreational events, a youth tournament and nightly music
concerts. Also part of the event is the inaugural ASICS World Series Cup
featuring two teams in each gender from the USA against two international teams
with the finals on Sunday. In addition to the international live FIVB telecasts,
the event also includes 23 hours of live or same-day telecasts split between NBC
Sports Network, Universal Network and NBC TV Network.


The women’s semifinals and medal matches of the FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam
will be held on Friday with the men’s semifinals also on Friday and men’s medal
matches closing the FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam on Saturday. Play Wednesday
through Friday will start at 8 a.m. and at 11 a.m. on Saturday for the men’s
medal matches.


The gold medal teams in each gender in the FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam will
each split $33,000, the silver $22,000, the bronze $16,500 and fourth place
$12,900. The women’s medal matches will be held on Friday and the men’s medal
matches on Saturday. The FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam is the 291st FIVB
international men’s event since the FIVB began play in 1987 and the 253rd FIVB
women’s tournament since women started international competition in 1992.


The 2013 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour is comprised of 10 Grand Slam
events and the 2013 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships. Not part of the
World Tour but still counting towards the FIVB World Rankings, the FIVB yearly
calendar also includes seven Open events, five double-gender and two women-only.
There is a double-gender FIVB Open event being playing this week as well in
Anapa, Russia.


After another week off next week, the 10-Grand Slam 2013 FIVB World Tour will
continue in two weeks in Germany at the $440,000 FIVB Berlin Grand Slam. The
season finale of the tour will be in Brazil in mid-October at the $440,000 FIVB
Sao Paulo Grand Slam.




 

Germany wins gold medal in FIVB Beach Volleyball U19 World Championships - US settles for respectable bronze medals for both boys and girls as breakout star Sara Hughes lands her first medal

PictureDouble Bronze for US (far right in blue) in the FIVB Beach Volleyball U19
It was a day cast in bronze for the U.S. competing in the FIVB Beach Volleyball U19 World Championships in Porto, Portugal, as the teams of Sara Hughes/Kelly Claes and TJ DeFalco/Lucas Yoder both walked away with third-place finishes. 

Ninth-seeded DeFalco (Huntington Beach, Calif.) and Yoder (San Clemente, Calif.) lost a close semifinal match to No. 5 Moritz Reichert and Clemens Wickler of Germany, 21-19, 21-19. The tough setback had them playing in the
bronze-medal match against Lukas Kazdailis and Arnas Rumsevicius of Lithuania, seeded No. 21. In what was tied for the longest match of the tournament at 48 minutes, DeFalco and Yoder earned a 22-24, 21-18, 15-8 victory to claim bronze.


After not being able to close out the first set, DeFalco and Yoder secured
the second and got a big lead in the tiebreaker. After Yoder scored his eighth
big block of the match at 14-7, DeFalco grabbed the bronze with a shot down the
line.

The bronze medal is the first U.S. medal in the boys’ U19 World Championships
since 2008 and the third medal overall.

“I am pretty stoked,” DeFalco said right after the final point in an FIVB
press release. “It means a lot to me to win this medal since this is my first
FIVB beach volleyball event.”

Reichert and Wickler won the top spot, and Norway’s Bjarne Nikolai Huus and
Christian Sandlie Sorum netted silver.

After two upset victories on Saturday, No. 7 Hughes (Costa Mesa, Calif.) and
Claes (Valencia, Calif.) dropped their semifinal match to third-seeded Eduarda
Santos Lisboa and Taina Silva Bigi of Brazil, 21-18, 21-17. Moving into the
bronze-medal final, Hughes and Claes faced off against No. 4 Sarah Schneider and
Lara Schreiber of Germany, who had defeated the other U.S. duo of Skylar Caputo
(Manhattan Beach, Calif.) and Delaney Knudsen (Santa Clarita, Calif.) 2-0 in
pool play. Hughes and Claes battled to a 21-18, 19-21, 15-12 victory to earn the
bronze medal.

Also fighting from behind, Hughes and Claes tied the second set at 19-19 before
winning it and forcing a tiebreaking third set.

“I feel amazing," said Hughes, who finished fourth at the FIVB Beach
Volleyball U21 World Championships last year with Summer Ross. “This is an
awesome experience. It’s my first time on the medal stand. My partner helped me
out a lot, this was a real team effort.”

Picture
Sara Hughes is the stunning breakout star of Women's Beach Volleyball