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Advance to Semifinals in Brazil
By B.J. Hoeptner Evans // USA Volleyball // September 28, 2007
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Sept. 27, 2007) – The U.S. beach volleyball team of Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh has reached the semifinals of the women’s bracket at the Banco do Brasil Open on the Praia de Iracema in Fortaleza, Brazil, part of the SWATCH-FIVB World Tour.
On the men’s side, Phil Dalhausser (Orlando, Fla.) and Todd Rogers (Santa Barbara, Calif.) advanced to round 3 in the winners’ bracket.
May-Treanor (Costa Mesa, Calif.) and Walsh (Santa Clara, Calif.), the tournament’s top seeds, have stormed through the bracket without dropping a set. In round 4 on Friday, their American compatriots Jen Boss (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) and April Ross (Newport Beach, Calif.), the fourth seeds, gave them their biggest test so far in a match that took 47 minutes. However, May-Treanor and Walsh came out on top, 21-19, 23-21.
Boss and Ross have dropped to the consolation bracket and await the winner of Friday’s match between Germany’s Sara Goller and Laura Ludwig (ranked sixth) and Brazil’s Adriana Brandão Behar and Shelda Bruno Bede (seeded seventh).
The U.S. women’s team of Nicole Branagh (Orinda, Calif.) and Elaine Youngs (El Toro, Calif.), ranked fifth, lost to Boss and Ross, 0-2 (13-21, 13-21) in the third round, but has fought its way back and will play Brazil’s 28th-ranked Sandra Pires Tavares and Ana Paula Connelly on Friday for the opportunity to play Brazil’s third-seeded Renata Martins Rebeiro and Talita De Rocha Antunes.
The winner of that match will play May-Treanor and Walsh in the semifinals. Second-seeded Juliana Felisberta Silva and Larissa Franca of Brazil are in the other semifinal.
The reigning Olympic champions, May-Treanor and Walsh have now compiled 47 SWATCH-FIVB World Tour semifinal appearances in 54 international starts together since 2001. Winners of 29 FIVB gold medals, May-Treanor and Walsh extended their SWATCH winning streak to 33 Thursday while improving their season mark to 45-1 with a 90-8 set record.
Juliana and Larissa, who captured last year’s SWATCH Brazilian stop in Vitoria where May-Treanor and Walsh placed third, advanced to their 43rd SWATCH semifinal in 51 FIVB starts since 2004 with a 21-18 and 21-12 win over Antunes and Ribeiro.
Dalhausser and Rogers, who won the 2007 SWATCH-FIVB World Championship in July, will play Brazil’s Franco Neto and Pedro Cunha, ranked fifth, in the third round on Friday.
Three other U.S. men’s beach teams are also still alive in the consolation bracket, but at least one will be done on Friday. The 11th-ranked team of Jake Gibb (Bountiful, Utah) and Sean Rosenthal (Redondo Beach, Calif.) will face Matt Fuerbringer (Costa Mesa, Calif.) and Casey Jennings, seeded 28th, in the second round of consolation. Tenth-ranked Mike Lambert (Kaneohe, Hawaii) and Stein Metzger (Honolulu, Hawaii) will play France’s Fabien Dugrip and Grègory Gagliano, ranked 24th, in the second round of consolation.
The Brazilian tournament is the final double-gender event of the 2007 season and the final men’s tournament. The women have one more tournament in Phuket, Thailand on Nov. 1-4.
More information is available on the FIVB beach volleyball web site at www.fivb.org/en/BeachVolleyball/index.asp.
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