"Three U.S. beach teams will be playing for medals on Sunday at SWATCH FIVB World Tour events in Korea and Poland.
The U.S. women’s beach volleyball team of Angie Akers (Fort Wayne, Ind.) and Tyra Turner (Fort Myers Beach, Fla.) will play for gold while U.S. teammates Jen Kessy (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) and April Ross (Costa Mesa, Calif.), will play for bronze at the US$190,000 Crown Seoul Open, which is being held at the Han River Jamsil Citizen Park courts.
Fourth-seeded Akers and Turner will face Brazil’s Juliana Felisberta Silva and Larissa Franca, the tournament’s top-seeded team, in the gold medal match.
Second-ranked Kessy and Ross will play Brazil’s third-seeded Maria Antonelli and Talita Antunes for the bronze medal. It is only the seventh time in FIVB women’s play since 2001 that all four top-seeded teams will be playing in the medal matches.
At the US$190,000 Myslowice Open, a men’s event, Phil Dalhausser (Ormond Beach, Fla.) and Todd Rogers (Santa Barbara, Calif.) will face Spain’s Adrian Gavira and Pablo Herrera for the second time this week, but this time in the gold medal match.
After Gavira and Herrera defeated them in the fourth round, Dalhausser and Rogers had to win a consolation match Saturday to advance to the semifinals where they rallied from a 15-21 first-set decision to defeat Germany’s second-seeded Julius Brink and Jonas Reckermann, 21-11, 15-9 in the final two sets of a 53-minute match.
“It was all about passing the ball better in the last two sets against the Germans,” Rogers said.
n the other semifinal, fourth-seeded Gavira and Herrera outlasted Brazil’s fifth-seeded Alison Cerutti and Emanuel Rego, 2-1 (17-21, 21-15, 15-10) in 53 minutes
Dalhausser and Rogers, who have competed in each SWATCH FIVB World Tour “final four” this season with Alison and Emanuel, reached the semifinals by eliminating ninth-seeded Grzegorz Fijalek and Mariusz Prudel of Poland 23-21, 21-19 in 57 minutes.
In the first semifinal matchup Seoul on Saturday, Juliana and Larissa advanced to the gold medal match with a three-set victory over Kessy and Ross, 2-1 (17-21, 21-14, 15-13) in 49 minutes.
In the final semifinal match, held under the lights in Seoul, Akers and Turner upset Brazil’s third-seeded Antonelli and Talita, the defending Crown Seoul Open champions, 21-17, 23-21 in 49 minutes. With the win, Akers and Turner, who will be in the second gold medal match in their 15-event FIVB career, also recorded their first FIVB career win over Antonelli and Talita.
To reach the semifinals, Kessy and Ross had to win a consolation quarterfinal match by defeating Germany’s sixth-seeded Laura Ludwig and Sara Goller, 21-19, 21-19 in 45 minutes Saturday afternoon.
In their consolation quarterfinal match to advance to their semifinal, Akers and Turner came from behind to defeat 12th-seeded Austrian sisters Stefanie and Doris Schwaiger, 2-1 (19-21, 21-16, 15-13) in 52 minutes." ~ Source: USAVolleyBlog.org
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