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USA Volleyball Competes Down Under
By B.J. Hoeptner Evans // USA Volleyball // March 26, 2008
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (March 26, 2008) – The U.S. beach volleyball team of Matt Fuerbringer and Casey Jennings have advanced to the main draw of the Adelaide Australia Open, the first event on the 2008 SWATCH-FIVB World Tour.
On Wednesday, Fuerbringer (Costa Mesa, Calif.) and Jennings (Las Vegas, Nev.) defeated top-seeded Jochem de Gruijter and Gijs Ronnes of Netherlands, 21-10, 25-27, 21-19, in a hard-fought third-round qualifying match that took 1 hour, 12 minutes.
Fuerbringer/Jennings are now ranked 27th and will play the sixth-seeded Australian team of Andrew Schacht and Josh Slack in Thursday’s main draw first round.
In other first-round matches, second-seeded Phil Dalhausser (Ormond Beach, Fla.) and Todd Rogers (Santa Barbara, Calif.), the 2007 world champions, will face France’s Kevin Cès and Andy Ces, seeded 31st.
Jake Gibb (Bountiful, Utah) and Sean Rosenthal (Redondo Beach, Calif.), the 18th seeds, will go up against 15th-ranked Martin Laciga and Jan Schnider of Switzerland. Stein Metzger (Honolulu, Hawai’i) and Mark Williams (Los Angeles, Calif.), competing together due to a minor injury to Metzger’s usual partner, Mike Lambert (Kaneohe, Hawai’i), are seeded 28th and will have to play Germany’s fifth-seeded Jonas Reckermann and Mischa Urbatzka.
In the first round of the women’s main draw on Thursday, fourth-seeded Nicole Branagh (Orinda, Calif.) and Elaine Youngs (El Toro, Calif.) will play 29th-seeded Galyna Osheyko and Svitlana Baburina of Ukraine. Seventh-ranked Jen Boss (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) and April Ross (Costa Mesa, Calif.) will face Canada’s Dana Cooke and Annie Martin, ranked 26th.
Fourteenth-seeded Tyra Turner (Fort Meyers Beach, Fla.) and Rachel Wacholder (Laguna Beach, Calif.) will play Efthalia Koutroumanidou and Maria Tsiartsiani of Greece, who are seeded 19th.
More information is available on the FIVB beach web site at www.fivb.org/EN/BeachVolleyball/index.asp?sm=12.
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