DALLAS -- The road to the Triple Crown meets the road to the London Olympics on Saturday when American beach volleyball hopefuls take to the sand on the infield at Pimlico.

For the second straight year, the nascent National Volleyball League will open its season with an event held in conjunction with the Preakness, taking the stage in the often wild, party-like atmosphere found on the infield of the aging horse racing course in Baltimore.

Reigning Olympic gold medalists Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers will be among those competing for the $50,000 purse, with the semifinals and finals scheduled to take place just before Kentucky Derby winner I'll Have Another heads into the starting gate.

"It should be cool," said Dalhausser, will be making his domestic debut in the run-up to his second Olympic Games. "I imagine a lot of people will be partying there. It should be crazy."

When the AVP tour suspended operations in 2010, it left precious few opportunities for American players to compete domestically. This is likely the only time Olympic hopefuls such as Jen Kessy and April Ross play in the United States before heading to London.

"We get to play in the center of a racetrack, which we've never done before," Kessy said Tuesday during a gathering of Olympic hopefuls in Dallas. "We've played under the Eiffel Tower, but never in the center of a racetrack."

This isn't the first time 200 tons of sand has been dumped on the infield at Pimlico. The Pro Beach East Volleyball Tour launched its season there in 2009, and last year, the National Volleyball League opened its first full season during Preakness weekend.

"The Maryland Jockey Club has tried to create a new dynamic in the infield and the proof is in the pudding this year with the Olympic teams competing at Pimlico on Preakness Day," Maryland Jockey Club president Tom Chuckas said. "What a big coup for us to have Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers here just two months prior to the London Games."

The infield at Pimlico has long belonged to a younger generation. Grammy Award winners Maroon 5 and multi-platinum rapper Wiz Khalifa are scheduled to perform this year, along with British rockers The Darkness and Nashville-based country music band Little Big Town, the stages set amidst numerous vendor stands where beer tends to flow like water.

The volleyball tournament begins Friday at Baltimore Beach, with the semifinals and finals moving to the infield on Saturday. The men's final is scheduled for 2 p.m. and the women's final at 3:30 p.m., with post time for the 137th Preakness Stakes at 6:18 p.m.

"We're really excited about this," said Kessy, who along with Ross narrowly missed qualifying for the Beijing Olympics. "And to get to play on U.S. soil is kind of rare these days."

While the AVP tries to reorganize, the best chance for elite players to compete comes through FIVB stops in far-flung places such as Brazil and the Czech Republic. Dalhausser and Rogers, for example, just finished a two-week stay in China.

All the extra time on the road creates major hurdles in training and nutrition, and could ultimately affect the performance of the U.S. team in London.

"It's sad, because it was the other way around," Kessy said. "It used to be that we played in the domestic tour and we chose the FIVB's that we wanted to play in, but hopefully that will change. Cross our fingers."

Read the rest of this entry »

The 2012 Olympic Games in London are just a little more than two months off, and remaining qualifying opportunities are beginning to wane. That's the case in beach volleyball, and with time growing short, two United States teams on the men's side are deadlocked.

The U.S. team of Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal fell in the bronze match at the Beijing Grand Slams, and as a result are tied with the team of Matt Fuerbringer and NIck Lucena for the second ticket to the London Games.

Fuerbringer and Lucena were ahead going into Beijing, but were dumped out in the third round. If Gibb and Rosenthal could have come through the bronze match with a win, they could have leapfrogged into a decent lead for the open spot.

Gibb and Rosenthal lead the FIVB Swatch World Tour, of which Beijing was a stop on, with 1880 points. Fuerbringer and Lucena are behind at 1800. As for Olympic qualifying points, both teams are locked at 4,920. There will only be three more Olympic qualifying events, so this is a battle can could go right down to the wire.

Three chances
After a week off, the FIVB Swatch World Tour resumes in the Czech Republic with the Prague Open, running May 22-27. After Prague the action goes to Moscow for the Moscow Grand Slam June 7-12, then Rome June 13-17 for the Rome Grand Slam.

The top U.S. spot locked up
The team of Phil Daulhasser and Todd Rogers have already earned enough points to qualify for the first spot on the team, and in the enviable position of being able to concentrate on the Olympics instead of battling to get there. They are second-ranked in the world on the men's Olympic qualification table, while Gibbs and Rosenthal join Fuerbringer and Lucena tied for fifth.

For casual fans of beach volleyball, the women's game gets the most attention, but fans of the sport know there's great competition going on with the women and men. The Olympics always bring a spike in publicity, and the mini-controversy over some women's teams wanting to wear less revealing beachwear will only put the sport more in the public eye.

Personally, I think the bikinis have become the accepted competition garment, so I'm not sure the IOC should have changed the rules, but at least they gave the option for teams wishing to stick with the traditional wear to do so..

Read the rest of this entry »

Taylor PISCHKE of the University of Manitoba and her women's beach volleyball teammate Melissa Humana-Parades of York University in Toronto will represent Canada in the women's division at the 2012 FISU Beach Volleyball World Championships on Sept. 12-16 in Maceio, Brazil.

The men's team is Sam Pedlow and Grant O'Gorman of Queen's University in Kingston, Ont.
Pischke, a Winnipeg native, earned the world championship berth with Humana-Parades last weekend at Volleyball Canada's Identification and Selection Camp at Volleyball Canada's new Beach High Performance Facility (HPF) located at Downsview Park in Toronto. Ten women's teams and seven men's teams competing for the berths in a tournament format. In the women's final, Humana-Parades and Pischke beat Alexandra Hudson of the University of Toronto and Kayla Ng of Waterloo 21-11, 21-15, avenging an earlier loss in pool play. Pischke is also member of the U of M Bisons women's indoor volleyball team.

Toban paces Canada
LONG BEACH, Calif. -- Toon Van Lankvelt of Rivers, Man., scored a game high 16 points Tuesday as Canada dumped Puerto Rico in straight sets at the NORCECA Olympic qualifying tournament in men's volleyball. Set scores were 25-19, 25-20 and 25-13. Canada improved its record to 2-0 in round-robin play and will face world No. 5 Cuba for first spot in its group and a bye to the semifinal today. The tournament champion earns a ticket to the 2012 London Olympics. The first place teams in each group get a bye to the semis while second and third cross over in the quarter-finals on Thursday.

Thompson wins opener
BRET THOMPSON of Winnipeg started his season on a winning note with a four-shot win at the first Maple Leaf Junior Golf Tour event of the season in Manitoba. The 36-hole contest was held at The Meadows at East St. Paul, where 18-year-old Thompson posted the best score each day, 71-72, for a 143 total.

That was four better than Steve Young of LaSalle, whose 71-76 was good enough to capture top honours in the boys 14-16 division. Jordan Sinclair of Fort Frances, Ont., finished second to Thompson in the boys 17-19 division with a 148 total. Cole Peters, 16, was runner-up to Young in his division, with a 149 total.
Nathan Wright of Warren captured the boys 13 and under group with a 153 total. In the girls division, Nicole McGlenen, 18, of Winnipeg was a two-shot winner with rounds of 76-87 and a total of 163. She bested Veronica Velesnik, who carded 80-85-165.

Eagles repeat as champs
ST. JOHN'S-RAVENSCOURT successfully defended its title at the Canadian High School Ultimate Championship in Montreal on the weekend. Coached by Dean Wright, Stephanie Chow and Sean Storm, the SJR Eagles made up of seven girls and seven boys, won all three of their preliminary pool games. SJR then took a quarter-final match 10-3 over St. George's/York House of Vancouver and dispatched Seminaire des Pere Maristes of Quebec 15-10 in the semifinal. In the championship game, SJR repeated as champions by waxing Westview of Toronto 15-5.

Gervais leads medal haul
MANITOBANS brought home 16 medals from the Western Canadian Gymnastics Championships in Langley, B.C., last weekend.

Manitoba was led by Natalie Gervais of the Springers Gymnastics Club, who earned gold with the National Open Team, as well as silvers for all-around and balance beam and a bronze on uneven bars.
Keanna Ponce, also of Springers, won three medals. She had a silver with her Aspire Team in pre-novice, and took gold in all-around and on vault. Other members of the Aspire Team members were Stephanie Clarkson, who also grabbed a silver on vault, Marielle Roy from the Panthers, who took bronze on uneven bars, Amelie Boissonneault of the Panthers and Taya Niessen of Springers. The pre-novice Elite team, which included Danika Duncan of Fantastic Gymnastics and Amy Hryshko of Panthers, won bronze.

Joining with Gervais on the National Open team were Tegan Turner and Sydney McEachern, Madeleine Arbuckle and Brenley Toffan of Springers, Ryann Lewis from Brandon Eagles and Meghan Boulanger from Fantastic Gymnastics.

Turner also tied for a bronze on vault with McEachern, and won bronze on floor. In the provincial category, Peyton Gale of Brandon Eagles won a gold on vault while Paige Kent of Springers won silver on uneven bars. In the men's program, Ian Kielly of Winnipeg Gymnastics Centre won gold on parallel bars. Team members now travel to Regina for the Canadian championships, May 21-27.

Rowers share award
PAUL THIESSEN and Nia Perron have been chosen to share the 2011-12 Peter Nykoluk Rowing Scholarship, the Winnipeg Rowing Club has announced. The award is worth $2,700 to each rower. Perron, 21, has earned Rowing Canada's Tony Zasada Award and Sport Manitoba's Woman to Watch Award.

Thiessen is training in Toronto as he continues chasing his goal to make the men's national team.
The club has given the award since 1995 to honour the memory of the former member and competitor and to recognize individuals for their outstanding contributions and achievements in the sport of rowing, paralleling Nykoluk's values of determination, commitment and sportsmanship.

Kudos for Thiessen
SANFORD'S Dennis Thiessen, skip of the Team Manitoba provincial wheelchair curling team, has been chosen to receive an athletic bursary from Petro-Canada's FACE (Fuelling Athletes and Coaching Excellence) program. Thiessen is one of 50 Canadian athletes to receive an $8,000 bursary from the program. Thiessen has captured a gold and three bronzes in the last four years at the national championships.

Read the rest of this entry »

SANTA MONICA -- For all of the impressive volleyball achievements produced by the Knudsen and Sanchez families during their careers at Valencia, it was only appropriate that they were central figures in another historical accomplishment Saturday at Annenberg Community Beach House.

Led by the play of Delaney Knudsen, Lindsey Knudsen and Sierra Sanchez, along with the coaching of Mark and Diane Knudsen, Valencia captured the inaugural title of the AAU Southern Pacific Girls' Interscholastic Beach Volleyball League by defeating previously unbeaten Mira Costa 2-1 in the final.

Delaney Knudsen and Sierra Sanchez capped an undefeated run during the 10-match season schedule with a 21-17, 21-13 victory over Lan Nguyen and Katie Warshaw, with Lindsey Knudsen and fellow freshman Kaitlyn Uthoven rallying for a 9-21, 21-18, 16-14 win over Skylar Caputo and Katrina Kernochan for the Vikings, who knocked off Harvard-Westlake 2-1 in the semifinals.

"There were schools who didn't want us to play here because we weren't a beach school," Sierra Sanchez said. "We wanted this really bad and we worked really hard for it. Everybody who came out to practice wanted to be the best. Delaney and I play all out, all the time, no matter the score and we wanted to show our teammates that we're here to win and lead by example."

Sanchez and Delaney Knudsen defeated Nguyen and Warshaw 21-5, 21-19 when the teams squared off April 14, but Mira Costa swept the remaining two doubles matches to secure the top seed for the six-team, single-elimination playoffs Saturday. After Hayley Knapp and Sydney Striff rallied in the semifinals against Harvard-Westlake for a 16-21, 21-18, 15-13 victory that clinched a berth in the championship match, Valencia encountered a rough start in the final.

Knapp and Striff, along with Lindsey Knudsen and Uthoven, both dropped their first games against Mira Costa, which defeated Marymount in the semifinals. But a change in defensive assignments by Lindsey Knudsen and Uthoven helped shift the momentum to enable them to secure the title after Lindsay Chalmers and Brooke Winterhalder outlasted Knapp and Striff 22-24, 21-19, 16-14.

"Especially being two freshmen, (Lindsey and Kaitlyn) showed a lot of heart and poise coming back like that," Mark Knudsen said. "For Delaney and Sierra to be our No. 1 team and go the whole season undefeated, I couldn't be more proud of them. But we wouldn't have been in the finals if it wasn't for Sydney and Hayley.

"Whether it's indoors or outdoors, it's always fun to beat Mira Costa because they're a quality team and we always look forward to playing them."With Terezie Cernosek, Sarah Ellias, Kellie Kleszcz, Leah Konigsberg and Melissa Kraidman also contributing to Valencia's regular-season success that included attending two practices a week on sand courts throughout the Santa Clarita Valley, it was Knapp and Striff whose development wound up being instrumental in the Vikings' title run.

"To see our girls on court three get us into the finals was special," Diane Knudsen said. "From the beginning of the year to the end, you could just see the improvement in their decisions, their skills and how they played the game."

Although Valencia's athletes balanced playing beach volleyball throughout the spring with their club commitments indoors, with Striff being the lone senior, the Vikings are in position to defend their title next year.

"It was all about flower power," Delaney Knudsen said. "Sierra and I have been playing together for so long and we have such good chemistry, so we wanted to set a good example for everyone else of how hard you have to work and how satisfying it is when it pays off. This was a great experience for the team and I think it only gives us more confidence as a group (in the summer and fall)."

AAU Beach Volleyball commissioner Gino Grajeda expects an expanded field of entries next year to challenge the Vikings, including perhaps a few Foothill League rivals. Harvard-Westlake, which advanced to the semifinals in a walkover against El Segundo, took a match in the semifinals against Valencia after suffering a 3-0 loss March 10, but the Wolverines wound up finishing third.

Marielle Bagnard, Jo Kremer, Nicole El Attrache, Nicole Gould, Rachel Savage, Emily Kelkar and Mila Barzdukas contributed for the Wolverines, who finished their inaugural schedule 5-4.

Read the rest of this entry »

Misty May-Treanor is a two-time Olympic gold medalist in beach volleyball who has won more tournaments than any other female player. May-Treanor and her longtime teammate, Kerri Walsh, are teaming up again for the London Games this summer in pursuit of what would be their third gold medal. May-Treanor, who is on the international beach volleyball circuit and wrapping up her master’s degree in coaching and athletic administration at Concordia University, said she has never been to London, except for the airport, even as a tourist.

“I’m expecting it to be chilly,” she said, making a nod to the signature bikinis worn by female beach volleyball players. “But we can layer up.”

Q. While rehearsing for “Dancing With the Stars” shortly after the Beijing Olympics in 2008, you injured your Achilles’ tendon. How has the injury had an impact on your recovery for this Olympics?

A. It’s one of the worst injuries an athlete can have. My leg will never be the same. But your body learns to adapt to it. But it’s been about three years and you make up for it in other ways. At first, I had to learn to walk again, to use different things when I played. I had surgery right away; I was in a cast for a couple of weeks and then on crutches.

Q.The United States has a long history of dominating in beach volleyball, but there is certainly formidable competition from Brazil and China and other countries this year. How are you preparing?

A.We actually just scrimmaged China and the German No. 1 team. It’s not just us and Brazil anymore dominating beach volleyball. I’d like to say it’s the U.S. and Brazil that led the charge, but the popularity of our sport has grown so much the sport has grown worldwide. But that’s what you want to see. There are so many great players and athletes. It’s not going to be easy.

Q.Beach volleyball is a rare Olympic sport in that it has official cheerleaders assigned to it. I’ve always wondered, what’s that like as a player? Good? Bad? Annoying? Weird? Cool?

A.I think because they’ve always been around we don’t really think about them. But everyone else sure notices them. When my husband played for the Florida Marlins, I thought it was strange they had cheerleaders, but I don’t think it’s weird we have dancers on the beach. They’re there to keep people moving. We don’t really see them on tour that much, but when we do, we say hi. I think the guys like it.

Q.The Association of Volleyball Professionals, a pre-eminent U.S. beach volleyball tour, has been in financial disarray in recent years and filed for bankruptcy in 2010. How has that had an impact on your touring schedule and life as a professional player?

A.It’s sad because we do both love playing at home and in front of our home crowd, but just for the fans to be able to watch the players at home, that’s important. I’d love to have a domestic tour and get a solid tour back here at home. But always in the past when we played A.V.P. and foreign tours, we were flying back and forth and it made for a long and tiring season. We loved it, but now it’s kind of a relief that there is one tour. It’s just different.

Q.You also wear another hat as a beach volleyball coach. Do you worry about lower levels of the sport being trained without a tour? The athletes that, say, aren’t competing at the level you and Walsh were?

A.There are sacrifices teams are going to have to make. It’s tough to say that, but that’s the reality. It does impact them because the next generation does need to watch the players play now. That’s how I learned, by watching other people play. Because if they don’t see us playing at home, I think it’s harder for players to learn from each other.

Q.You and Walsh have been playing together for over a decade, often in clearly intense high-pressure situations. Is it ever hard to be around one single teammate that much?

A.It’s very similar to a marriage or sisterhood. I don’t have a sister but I consider her a sister. We’ve been through thick and thin. That’s how you gain experience and go through the ups and downs. We genuinely care for each other and we balance our lives on and off the court. I live in a different part of town, but when we get together it’s like we never left. We have our different hobbies and things we need to do away from each other but it’s fun when you have something like we do, it’s very special. We miss each other.

Q.In addition to your international travel schedule, you’re married to a professional athlete, Matt Treanor, a catcher who now plays for the Dodgers. How do you juggle the two schedules?

A.It hasn’t been the easiest as far as scheduling because he’s never been on a California-based team before. I have more freedom to travel than he does. Now, he’s playing for the Dodgers. It’s like we’re finally married. Some call my husband the man of mystery because he can’t go to any tournaments and can’t go to the Olympics. But it’s nice to come home to him on a regular basis.

Q.How do a professional beach volleyball player and a major league catcher meet?

A.We met in physical therapy! I joke that if anyone is looking for a prom date, you have to scope out the physical therapy site and make sure there are athletes. If you don’t have any big tournaments coming up feel free to sprain something.

Q.This year marks the 40th anniversary of Title IX, the law that requires schools to offer girls and women equal access to sports as men. Do you think things have improved? How?

A.What Billie Jean King did and all the women before us have given the girls of today and me the opportunity to do what we do. I don’t know if the next generation realizes that they put their necks on the line and that the doors don’t open as easily. It was a big step for women’s sports. When I was growing up I would go to beach tournaments and it was just the men. Then when the women got their own tour, the women were a sideshow. Now it’s flipped a little bit. It’s something the women in our sport had to battle. I’m very thankful that the pioneers have opened those doors to allow us not only in our sport, but basketball, lacrosse and other sports to blossom.

Q.In your book, you lay a lot of things bare – alcoholism, sexual assault, to name a few. What has been the experience of putting your personal story out in the public been like?

A.I was hoping the story would help people get to know me. There are so many books that talk about sports. People already know about matches, but I think people want to know what makes you tick. I’m sure there are girls going through the same things. If I can inspire someone or help someone work through something, then I feel I’ve done my job and that’s what I can offer. I don’t want people to put me on a pedestal to where people think life has just been perfect. Because life isn’t perfect for everyone. But how do you turn those negatives into positives so that the outcome works for you? It was therapeutic to me because I didn’t talk about it a lot. But now I talk about it all the time and realize a lot of people feel the same way.

Q.In addition to beach volleyball, you do a fair amount of television. Do you see yourself doing more?

A.Oh God, I’m not an actress! I think it’s fun but I wouldn’t do it seriously. I’ve always wanted to host “Saturday Night Live.” When opportunities come around like “Dancing With the Stars” or “Wizards of Waverly Place,” I say sure. It’s something out of the norm, but I’m not shy with the camera.

Read the rest of this entry »

TRINIDAD and Tobago Volleyball Federation (TTVF) president Mushtaque Mohammed said his federation will shift their attempts at qualifying for the Olympic Games to beach volleyball.

His statement comes on the heels of local volleyball women’s failure to qualify for the London Olympics, going down to Cuba, Costa Rica and Mexico at the qualifiers in Tijuana, Mexico recently. The long-serving volleyball boss said yesterday, the move is one of the federation’s strategic objectives for the future.

He explained that emphasis will be placed on the beach volleyballers who should have an easier route to future Olympics. “Apart from having just two players on a team which would make it more financially affordable, the route to qualification is much easier.

“In beach volleyball 32 teams can earn qualifying berths for the Olympics while in indoor volleyball it is just 12 teams which is difficult for us.”He explained that in the case of indoor volleyball, the federation has agreed to focus on qualifying for the World Championships in 2014 and beyond. Trinidad and Tobago are Caribbean women champions and must now focus on qualifying for that event.

Mohammed pointed out the TT women would always face a difficult task at qualifying because of the huge gap that exist between them and their opponents. He said, “some of the countries we played against have players who play volleyball for a living.

“They have a training and medical staff and everything that is necessary for them to perform at the top level in the sport.”He lamented, however, “in Trinidad our players can hardly get a court to train on regularly,” Mohammed.

Read the rest of this entry »

With the sun setting and a slight breeze blowing, teams huddled together and shouted cheers in preparation for the Beach Bash volleyball tournament 2012, which would last almost an entire night. The Beach Bash started at 6 p.m. on Friday and lasted until around 6 a.m. Saturday morning, with the championship round beginning at close to 4:30 a.m.

“Our main goal is to promote the women’s volleyball team, and this gives students a great chance to meet them and hang out some,” Beach Bash Event Coordinator Ryan Culkin said. Ten members of the Liberty Flames women’s volleyball team took part as referees for the games in the tournament.

Four new sandy courts at Campus East was where the tournament took place, providing students a place where they could keep all eyes on the happenings between their friends and the other teams. “We just came to hang out and watch friends take home the trophy and enjoy the beautiful weather,” said senior Samuel Seaborn. “Maybe even get a little tan.”

The courts were littered with bright colors of pink, red and even neon green. These explosions of colors represented the teams that were excited to compete. Team CH’YYEEAH was one of the groups that sought the road to victory this year, and certainly showed it through their unity as a team. “The sand is cold and it’s really intimidating, but we’re doing it for the story,” team CH’YYEEAH’s captain Zachary Boyd said. Other students had stories of their own to tell, but all with one thing in their thoughts: winning the Beach Bash.

“I’m out here enjoying this because I get to dominate volleyballs into the sand,” said sophomore Austin Smith. “Good food and good times with friends, but hopefully going home as the champions.”
Other students showed excitement to just be in attendance having something to take their minds off of the last few weeks of school.

“I’ve been excited for it all day, and it’s very refreshing and fun,” freshman Alyssa Wheeler said. “It’s a nice break from the upcoming exams.”Each team was competing for the title of champion of Beach Bash 2012. Prizes for the winning team also included gift certificates from local businesses around Lynchburg, as well as a Mikasa volleyball for each member. Second place teams would get Mountain Dew duffle bags and third place winners would all get Mountain Dew T-shirts.

Pepsi sponsored the Beach Bash tournament this year, providing the Mountain Dew T-shirts and duffle bags as well as free Mountain Dew on the sidelines. Sodexo stopped in around 10:30 p.m. to provide free food and drinks to those in attendance.
“We just wanted a good opportunity to use these new state of the art courts and give students an opportunity to do a cool late night activity,” Culkin said.

Culkin also mentioned that a special pre-announcement was being made at the Beach Bash.
“On Wednesday, Club Sports is announcing that there will be a men’s and women’s beach volleyball team for next year,” Culkin said. As the sun dropped behind the mountain ridge, the air temperature began to drop too. However, that did not stop the teams of students from the pursuit of fun and ultimately winning the tournament.

Read the rest of this entry »

THE second DTS beach volleyball tournament for the year took place last Saturday, with seventeen four-a-side and eighteen two-a-side teams participating in the 2012 Series.

The Junior Ladies category catered for girls aged between 14 and 18 years and saw 3 teams participating. After winning 2 matches, Clara Hassenpflug and Jana Rumpf took first place, while Saskia Henckert and Melissa Kring came in second place, followed by Carmen Curschmann and Annika Schmidt von Wuehlisch in third.

In contrast to previous tournaments, this year’s junior category was integrated into the men’s competition, where 8 teams played in a double elimination format. The second seeded team of Achim Lueck and Peter Brinkmann had no problems reaching the finals where they beat the upcoming junior team of Gero Talkenberg and Bernhard Schurz in the semi-finals, winning by two sets to nil.

In the second semi-final of the day, the first-seeded pair of Joern Landsrath and Rector Mbeha faced Deon Cloete and Ruben Delie of the Korean Motor Spares team. The team of Landsrath and Mbeha playing together for the first time, won the first set comfortably, but Cloete and Delie quickly equalised to take the score to one-all. The decisive third set saw the experienced team of Cloete and Delie beating the favourites and winning the match by 2 sets to 1 and thus qualifying for the finals.

In a thrilling final played under floodlights, Brinkmann and Lueck showed off their skills and beat the Korean Motor Spares team by 2-1 sets. Third place went to Landsrath and Mbeha. The 4-a-side social category saw 17 teams entering, but due to rain some teams did not show up. Cats & Dogs, The Other
Guys, The Nutz and Juxta proved the best four teams and qualified for the semi-finals.

Last year’s champions, Cats & Dogs surprisingly lost against Other Guys, while Juxta beat The Nutz to set up a final between two teams that never won a tournament. Team Juxta went unbeaten and won the tournament by 2-0 sets. Third place went to Cats & Dogs.

The Ladies’ category saw 7 teams competing, with the defending champions Wiebke Hoeritzauer and Brigitte Looser once again showing off their skill by easily progressing to the final after defeating Antje Kesselmann and Elina Veijo by 2-0 sets. In the second semi final, the third seeded team of Karin Curschmann and Anita Kinder faced the fourth-seeded team of Teja Lueck and Rosi Hennes. After a tight match, the experienced veteran team of Curschmann and Kinder won by 2-1 sets and qualified for
the final.

Hoeritzauer and Looser proved too strong and managed to win comfortably with 2-0 sets and once again driving away with a Sportscar sponsored by KIA Motors which they can drive until the next tournament. Third prize went to Kesselmann/Veijo. The twins of team Juxta, Muna & Tara Katupose were voted as the FX FITNESS Most Athletic Male Players of the tournament while Dietlind Foerster was chosen as the FX FITNESS Most Athletic Female Player of the tournament.

Read the rest of this entry »

Direct entry to August's Olympic Games is back on for Tauranga's Jason Lochhead and Kirk Pitman after a good start to the world tour, although their most likely route to London remains via June's Continental Cup final in China.

The New Zealand No 1 pairing have finished ninth at the US$190,000 Brasilia Open, the first tournament on the world tour, which has lifted their Olympic ranking less than two months before the mid-June cutoff for automatic qualification.

The top 16 teams in the world after the US$300,000 Rome Grand Slam from June 12-17 qualify automatically for London, although with each country allowed only two teams at the Olympics Pitman and Lochhead's 1784 ranking points put them closer to qualification than ever before. The 16th-ranked team, Latvia's Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Ruslans Sorokins, are on 2480 points.

The four-strong New Zealand team - Pitman/Lochhead and Tauranga siblings Sam and Ben O'Dea - finished second to Australia at their Asia-Pacific Olympic qualifier at Mt Maunganui in February but still qualified for June's Asian Confederation Continental Cup in China, where the winning nation will grab one of the last spots for the London Olympics.

Mike Dudson, Volleyball New Zealand's high performance elite beach manager, said the strong finish in Brazil had reignited Pitman and Lochhead's late push for the top 16.

"We've done the maths and a run of ninth placings will put Jase and Kirk back in contention,'' he said. "The likelihood's not great but it's not impossible - they'd have to play great weeks on end. While I hope it happens, I wouldn't like to put my last dollar on it.''

The Kiwi combo have six tournaments left in the Olympic qualifying period - the US$190,000 Poland and Prague Opens and four US$300,000 Grand Slam events in Shanghai, Beijing, Moscow and Rome.

They spent six weeks training in California with coach Jeff Conover prior to Brazil and, despite losing their first round match to Germany 2-0, went on to defeat Great Britain 2-1, Holland 2-1 and Norway 2-1 before losing to Brazilians Moises Santos and Vitor Felipe 23-21 21-12 to finish ninth.

"Jason had some pretty nasty stomach cramps in the last match,'' Dudson said. "They actually led 19-16 in that first set and lost it, before blowing out in the second. It was a great start, though, and the pleasing thing was how well they played to battle through to the top part of the draw.''

The O'Dea siblings have also been busy on the secondary Asian tour, winning the Thailand championship and backing it up with gold, bronze and fifth in the last month.

With the Continental Cup final using a Davis Cup-style format, meaning all four players' results count, Dudson hoped the No 2-ranked Kiwis could hold their form through to China, hinting that the brothers would play together rather than being partnered with Pitman and Lochhead, a move that backfired at Mt Maunganui as Australia won the gold medal match 4-0, dropping just two sets.

"Having Ben and Sam contribute with some wins in China will be important. They beat Iran, the reigning beach champions, at their last tournament, which was a fantastic result.''

The O'Deas should have enough ranking points to make pre-qualifying for the Grand Slams in Shanghai and Beijing in May and would also travel to Rome in the hope of making qualifying there.

Read the rest of this entry »

The sun, sand and sweat of the Jose Cuervo Pro Beach Volleyball Series returns to the beach. The highest-paying and most-attended tour in the country will once again deliver intense men’s and women’s competition through a seven-event series in 2012.

The Jose Cuervo Series kicks off on Memorial Day weekend on the beaches of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. and will tour the United States throughout the summer culminating with the Jose Cuervo Pro Beach Volleyball Series National Championships in Huntington Beach, Cal. in September. Each tournament of the Jose Cuervo Series will be sanctioned by USA Volleyball (USAV), the governing body of the sport, and will be broadcast nationally on NBC Sports Network. The cities, dates and prize purses of the 2012 Jose Cuervo

Pro Beach Volleyball Series include:
Florida Open, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. – May 25-27 – $75,000
Belmar Open, Belmar, N.J. – June 22-24 – $75,000
Chicago Open, Chicago, Ill. – July 13-15– $100,000
Hermosa Open, Hermosa Beach, Cal. – July 20-22 – $100,000
Milwaukee Shootout, Bradford Beach, Wis. – August 4-5 – $60,000
Manhattan Beach Open, Manhattan Beach, Cal. – August 24-26 – $100,000

Jose Cuervo National Championships – Huntington Beach, Cal. – September 21-22 – $150,000*
*The 2012 Jose Cuervo Pro Beach Volleyball Series schedule and prize purse is subject to change
“Fans and players can expect the 2012 Cuervo Series to be just as good, and in some cases even better, than last year’s inaugural tour, featuring world-class competition and offering more tour dates, total prize money and overall entertainment than any tour in the U.S.,” said Brian Radics, Diageo Brand Director, Jose Cuervo. “When we returned to professional beach volleyball last year, we made sure to deliver a top domestic tour and come back in a huge way that fans and players have expected from Jose Cuervo, responsibly, since the 70′s when Jose Cuervo became the sport’s first corporate sponsor.”

“IMG is pleased to be back in the beach volleyball business,” says James Leitz, SVP of IMG Action Sports, owner and operator of the Jose Cuervo Pro Beach Volleyball Series. “Together with Diageo, Jose Cuervo and USA Volleyball, we delivered in 2011 on the promise to bring back the elite, professional game to the United States. In 2012, with more stops, energetic markets, world-class athletes and a great partner in Jose Cuervo, we are poised for an amazing summer on the beach.”

Jose Cuervo, the world’s largest producer of Tequila and title sponsor of the Series, will offer a Cuervo Village at every tournament to fans 21 years of age or older, creating a full festival-like atmosphere featuring music, consumer contests, giveaways and of course Jose Cuervo cocktails (where legal) to be enjoyed responsibly. The National Championships will culminate the season to feature an ultimate weekend of beach volleyball competition and a Jose Cuervo sponsored celebration of fans, 21 years of age of older. The Jose Cuervo Pro Beach Volleyball Series will continue to offer all fans free admission to every tournament.

“The Jose Cuervo Pro Beach Volleyball Series delivers intense competition between some of the best players in the world and an energetic atmosphere where fans are up close to the action,” said Sean Scott, professional beach volleyball player and winner of the 2011 Jose Cuervo Pro Beach Volleyball Series Manhattan Beach Open. “From the opening serve to match point, the experience Jose Cuervo and IMG provide is that of a world-class tournament. My partner, John Hyden, and I are excited to get back competing on the Cuervo Series’ stadium court again.”For more information, please visit www.josecuervoprobeachvolleyballseries.com. When enjoying the offerings of Jose Cuervo, please remember to do so responsibly.

Read the rest of this entry »