Kessy, Ross Advance to Sanya Semifinals

B.J. Hoeptner Evans
Manager, Media Relations and Publications
Phone: (719) 228-6800
E-Mail: bj.evans@usav.org

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Oct. 30, 2009) – The U.S. women’s beach volleyball team of Jen Kessy and April Ross have advanced to the semifinals of the Sanya Open, of the Sanya Open, a SWATCH FIVB World Tour event in China.

After winning their third- and fourth-round matches on Friday, Kessy (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) and Ross (Costa Mesa, Calif.), the tournament’s top seeds, will have Saturday off while awaiting their semifinal opponents for Sunday.

Those opponents could be their American teammates, third-ranked Angie Akers (Fort Wayne, Ind.) and Tyra Turner (Fort Myers Beach, Fla.), who lost in the fourth round on Friday and fell to the consolation bracket.

Akers and Turner will play the winner of Saturday’s consolation match between second-seeded Sara Goller and Laura Ludwig of Germany and 25th-ranked Danielle Remmers and Sophie van Gestel of Netherlands.

The winner of that match will play Kessy and Ross in the semifinals.

Remmers and Gestel were knocked into the consolation bracket on Friday by Kessy and Ross, who defeated them in Friday’s third round, 21-6, 21-15 in 37 minutes. In the fourth round, Kessy and Ross defeated Greece’s fifth-seeded Vicky Arvaniti and Maria Tsiartsiani, 21-19, 24-22 in 47 minutes.

Akers and Turner defeated Switzerland’s 11th-ranked Simone Kuhn and Nadine Zumkehr in the third round, 21-15, 24-26, 15-11 in 56 minutes. But the U.S. team was upset in the fourth round by Italy’s 15th-seeded Greta Cicolari and Marta Menegatti, 13-21, 16-21 in 41 minutes.

The U.S. women’s team of Lauren Fendrick (Carlsbad, Calif.) and Ashley Ivy (Arlington, Texas), ranked 21st, finished the tournament tied for ninth, tying their best FIVB World Tour finish ever.

The team opened play on Friday by defeating Netherlands’ 22nd-ranked Madelein Meppelink and Marloes Wesselink, 21-17, 21-12 in 39 minutes. They went on to defeat Russia’s 19th-seeded Maria Bratkova and Evgenia Ukolova, 17-21, 21-17, 15-13 in 60 minutes.

However they were eliminated from the tournament with a loss to Russia’s 26th-ranked Ekaterina Khomyakova and Anastasia Vasina, 21-23, 21-15, 11-15 in 57 minutes.

More information and complete results and photos are available at www.fivb.org/EN/BeachVolleyball/index.asp.