Huntington Beach, USA, May 1, 2018 - The inaugural FIVB Beach Volleyball Huntington Beach Open presented by the Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP) had its first serve here Tuesday featuring 14 men’s and five women’s preliminary round matches to set the field for Wednesday’s qualification matches.
Three of the men’s matches featured American men’s pairs playing foreign teams from Canada and Brazil with the remaining 16 matches pitting two teams from the United States against each other on the courts at the Huntington Beach Pier.
Foreign teams posting wins over American pairs on Tuesday were Canadians Simon Fecteau-Botin/Hugo Rosso-Bonneau and Gabriel Burlacu/Jake MacNeil and Brazilians Luciano Ferreira de Paula/Vinicius Rezende. All three foreign teams have combined to play in 43 FIVB events while each of their American opponents were competing in an international tournament for the first time.
The semifinals and medal matches will be played on Sunday with the winning teams netting the $20,000 first-place prizes. Huntington Beach will become the fifth southern California site to host an FIVB World Tour event. Earlier southern California sites for international competition were Hermosa Beach (1995 and 1996), Los Angeles (1997 World Championships), Carson (2003) and Long Beach (2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016).
The Huntington Beach Open, which is a partnership between the FIVB and the United States’ premier beach volleyball tour, is the 19th FIVB World Tour stop in the United States and the second this season. The Fort Lauderdale Major was held in February in south Florida where the teams of Fernanda Alves/Barbara Seixas of Brazil and Americans Phil Dalhausser/Nick Lucena topped the women's and men's podiums, respectively.
Here are Tuesday’s results:
Men
• Simon Fecteau-Botin /Hugo Rosso-Bonneau, Canada def. Charles Porter/Clark Porter, United States, 2-0 (22-20, 21-13) (34 minutes)
• Troy Field/Bobby Jacobs, United States def. Bobby Bomberg/Eric Johnson, United States, 2-0 (21-11, 21-11) (28)
• Gabriel Burlacu/Jake MacNeil, Canada def. Mika Hunkin/Sean Reyes, United States, 2-0 (21-8, 21-7) (23)
• Luciano Ferreira de Paula/Vinicius Rezende, Brazil def. Brandon Joyner/John-Michael Plummer, United States, 2-0 (21-19, 21-17) (39)
• Jeff Samuels/Ian Satterfield, United States def. Robert deAurora/Steven Irvin, United States, 2-0 (21-15, 25-23) (42)
• Branden Clemens/Ben Vaught, United States def. Alexi Gabriel/Aaron Wexler, United States, 2-0 (21-15, 21-14) (34)
• Brian Miller/Brett Ryan, United States def. Torin Jeffreys/Shawn Ledig, United States, 2-0 (21-16, 21-10) (34)
• Jonathan Drake/Chris Luers, United States def. Brian Chapman/Matthew Ellis, United States, 2-1 (21-16, 15-21, 15-10) (48)
• Kacey Losik/Garrett Wilson, United States def. Brendan Duff/Taylor Hammond, United States, 2-0 (21-9, 21-12) (39)
• David Vander Meer/Logan Webber, United States def. Alex Amylon/Ty Coutts, United States, 2-0 (21-12, 21-11) (34)
• Skyler McCoy/Travis Mewhirter, United States def. Eric Beranek/Garrett Wessberg, United States, 2-0 (25-23, 21-15) (44)
• Art Barron/Tim May, United States def. Aidan Brown/Robert Mullahey, United States, 2-0 (21-16, 21-19) (41)
• Reuben Danley/Travis Schoonover, United States def. Tom Kohler/Jake Urrutia, United States 2-1 (19-21, 21-19, 15-8) (51)
• Kyle Stevenson/Nathan Yang, United States def. Timothy Brewster/John Schwengel, United States, 2-0 (21-14, 21-19) (30)
Women
• McKenna Thibodeau/Madison Witt, United States def. Jade Hayes/Maribeth Kern, United States, 2-0 (21-8, 21-12) (29)
• Cecilia Agraz/Lacey Fuller, United States def. Bailey Bars/Valinda Roche, United States, 2-1 (20-22, 21-14, 15-7) (43)
• Lisa Reed/Anne Marie Taylor, United States def. Kathleen Luft/Alexa Micek, United States, 2-0 (21-17, 23-21) (41)
• Olivia Bakos/Peri Brennan, United States def. Michelle Iafigliola/Tina Toghiyani, United States, 2-0 (22-20, 21-15) (34)
• Terri Del Conte/Taylor Fricano, United States def. Emily Hartong/Kellie Osborne, United States, 2-0 (21-17, 21-13) (30)