Elimination Play to Begin in Long Beach Volleyball Tournament

LONG BEACH, CA -- The single-elimination portion of the $800,000 World Series of Beach Volleyball on Alamitos Beach in Long Beach begins Friday with three rounds of women's play and two for the men.

Kerri Walsh Jennings and April Ross were among eight teams receiving first-round byes. The U.S. Olympic bronze medalists are scheduled to play at 1:20 p.m. against the winner of the 10 a.m. match between Americans Summer Ross and Lane Carico and Spain's Ester Ribera Boter and Amaranta Fernandez Navarro.

Summer Ross was described as "the future of our sport" by the retired Misty May-Treanor, who teamed with Walsh Jennings to win three Olympic gold medals. The Rosses are not related.

Summer Ross teamed with Caitlin Racich to win the inaugural American Volleyball Coaches Association collegiate sand volleyball national pairs championship while playing for Pepperdine in 2012. Carico is an alumnus of Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach

Summer Ross and Carico won the Association of Volleyball Professionals Seattle Open in June.

The top-seeded team of Walsh Jennings and Ross completed play in Pool A with a 21-19, 18-21, 15-13 victory in 53 minutes Thursday over the 16th-seeded Brazilians Maria Antonelli and Lili in what Walsh Jennings described as windy and swirly conditions.

The victory was the third in three matches in the tournament for Walsh Jennings and Ross and avenged a loss in June in Hamburg, Germany.

U.S. Olympians Lauren Fendrick and Brooke Sweat also won their pool. Three other U.S teams were also among the 24 teams advancing to single- elimination portion, including USC seniors Kelly Claes and Sara Hughes.

"To make it into the elimination rounds is very cool," said Hughes, who teamed with Claes to win World University Championships in July and help the Trojans to the NCAA championship in May. They will face Tanja Huberli and Nina Betschart of Switzerland in a first-round match at 10:50 a.m.

In men's play, the top-seeded American Olympians Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena won both their matches Thursday to complete pool play 3-0.

Dalhausser and Lucena needed 35 minutes for a 21-18, 21-15 victory over 17th-seeded Martins Plavins and Haralds Regza of Latvia, and 32 minutes for a 21-15, 21-17 victory over 16th-seeded Michal Kadziola and Jakub Szalankiewicz of Poland.

Dalhausser and Lucena received a first-round bye and will face the winner of the match between Josh Binstock and Sam Schachter of Canada and Jonathan Erdmann and Bennet Poniewaz of Germany in the second round.

-- City News Service, photo via Shutterstock