Lausanne, Switzerland, March 29, 2015 – Seven beach volleyball duos from the United States who have qualified for the 2015 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships are relishing the temperate climate and ample beaches of Southern California as they diligently define and passionately prepare their superb skills for the 2015 competition calendar. Monday’s official Drawing of Lots will determine what pools each team will be placed in for the opening pool play portion of the event.
Tandems from 41 countries (48 teams per gender) have qualified to be part of what promises to be the most unique, memorable event in the history of the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) as the 10th annual FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships will be held in four cities in the Netherlands this summer.
Based on entry points, the men’s teams heading to the Netherlands in June are USA’s No. 1 Phil Dalhausser/Sean Rosenthal, USA’s No. 8 Tri Bourne/John Hyden, No. 13 USA’s Jake Gibb/Casey Patterson and USA’s No. 15 Theodore Brunner/Nick Lucena.
For the women, the duos who have qualified this year are USA’s No. 2 April Ross/Kerri Walsh Jennings
USA’s No. 17 Lauren Fendrick/Brooke Sweat and USA’s No. 20 Emily Day/Jen Kessy.
The brightest stars in the beach volleyball world are striving strenuously to take their place in the magnificent stages of four Dutch cities. Anchored in The Hague, the 2015 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships will be held June 26-July 5 in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Apeldoorn and at the headquarters in the Hague.
For the USA, Dalhausser and Todd Rogers won a gold medal (2007) and a bronze (2011) as a team in the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships. Dalhausser is now teamed with Rosenthal and the latter tandem has eight podium finishes including six gold medals in just 18 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour events together. USA’s Bourne/Hyden has one gold medal in 11 world tour events, USA’s Gibb Patterson has four podiums including one gold medal in 21 FIVB World Tour stops.
USA’s legendary champion Walsh Jennings won three consecutive gold medals in the FIVB World Championships (2003, 2005 and 2007) playing with the now-retired Misty May-Traenor. Walsh Jennings is now playing with April Ross. Ross won the gold medal (2009) with Jen Kessy who took time off the world tour in 2013 and 2014 and qualified this year with Emily Day.
Ross/Walsh Jennings have won six gold medals in the 13 FIVB World Tour events they have played as a team while Fendrick/Sweat have played eight world tour events and are looking for their first podium placement and Day/Kessy will be playing on the FIVB World Tour as a team for the first time in 2015.
Commenting on pre-season conditioning and the drawing of lots for the FIVB World Championships, USA’s Dalhausser said, “With the weather and the multitude of beaches on Southern California, Team USA is able to stay pretty much at home for pre-season practice and actually work out with teams from several countries that pass through here before the start of the season. A lot of our pre-season prep work is done in a gym to physically work on a variety of things to build strength and stamina and we use practices on the sand to work on different aspects of play individually and as a team as well as working on keeping focus mentally.”
“We are really, really looking forward to the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships. Next to the Olympics, it is the biggest event for our sport globally. This year it takes on added importance as it is part of the Olympic qualifying process for Rio 2016. Monday’s draw will be interesting to see how it all shakes out and gives us time to actually know far ahead of time who we will be facing during our three pool play matches.”
The Drawing of Lots for the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships The Netherlands 2015 will take place on Monday at the Mauritshuis Art Museum in the Hague. The event will be conducted in the presence of representatives from the FIVB, Nevobo, sponsors, city officials, members of Beach Team Netherlands, Tournament ambassadors and members of the media.
NO. 10
Prior to this year’s FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships in the Netherlands, previous world championships have been held in the United States (Los Angeles, 1997), France (Marseille,1999), Austria (Klagenfurt, 2001), Brazil (Rio de Janeiro, 2003), Germany (Berlin, 2005), Switzerland (Gstaad, 2007), Norway (Stavanger, 2009), Italy (Rome, 2011) and Poland (Stare Jablonki, 2013).