The World Series of Beach Volleyball continued on Friday, and the action was well-worth watching. The big story going into the tournament was that we’d see Kerri Walsh Jennings face April Ross, her teammate for the past four years, for the first time since they split up in May.
World Series of Beach Volleyball 2017 scores: April Ross and new teammate Lauren Fendrick advance to semifinals
Kerri Walsh Jennings is out while April Ross and Lauren Fendrick have made it to the semifinals at the World Series of Beach Volleyball from Long Beach.
Photo by Paul Gilham/Getty Images
Their match was a close one and took place on Thursday, with Ross and Lauren Fendrick beating Walsh Jennings and Nicole Branagh. The day would end up going very poorly for that pairing, as they also lost to the team of Sara Hughes and Kelly Claes on the day.
On Friday, Walsh Jennings and Branagh recovered somewhat, beating the team of Betsi Flint and Kelly Larsen in straight sets, 21-14, 24-22. But they were well behind the teams of Ross and Fendrick and Hughes and Claes.
The quarterfinals took place on Friday, and they saw Ross and Fendrick beat the team of Brooke Sweat and Summer Ross in straight sets, 24-22, 21-13. The team of Hughes and Claes took down the team of Kimberly Dicello and Emily Stockman in three sets, 21-14, 13-21, 15-12. The team of Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst of Germany made it past the Canadian team of Heather Bansley and Brandie Wilkerson in straight sets, 23-21, 21-16.
In the other international quarterfinal, Brazil’s Talita Da Roca Antunes and Larissa Franca Maestrini made it through Germany’s Julia Sude and Chantal Laboureur in straight sets, 21-14, 21-16.
That sets up two semifinals, using the USA versus The World format. The American team of Ross and Fendrick, the fifth seeds, will face the American team of Hughes and Claes, the fourth seeds, on Saturday.
The other will see the top-seeded Brazilians Talita and Larissa up against the eighth-seeded Germans of Ludwig and Walkenhorst. The winners of each semifinal will meet in the finals, which will also take place on Saturday. The third place match between the losers of those semifinals will also be played on Saturday.
The men’s quarterfinals are also set. The fourth-seeded team of John Hyden and Ryan Doherty will take on the sixth-seeded team of Theodore Brunner and Casey Patterson for the Americamns. The other American teams include the third-seeded Nicholas Lucena and Philip Dalhausser up against the fifth-seeded Taylor Crabb and Jacob Gibb.
On the international front for the men, the second-seeded Polish team of Piotr Kantor and Bartosz Losiak will face the 16th-ranked Italians Alex Ranghieri and Marco Caminati. The other matchup features seventh-seeded Canadians Sam Pedlow and Sam Schachter up against the Spanish Pablo Herrera Allepuz and Adrian Gavira Collado.
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