Four Olympians Make It Through High Powered First Day of AVP Huntington Beach Open Main Draw

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. - May 6, 2016 - PRLog -- The competitive strength of the 2016 AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour's Huntington Beach Open field was on full display today with the start of main draw action. The results assured a heavy Olympic presence in tomorrow's action as Kerri Walsh Jennings, April Ross and Jake Gibb advanced easily in their two matches.

A fourth Olympian, Todd Rogers, will have to fight back through the contenders bracket with his partner Robbie Page, after dropping their second match of the day to Gibb and Casey Patterson.

The first round proved most challenging on the men's side with three of the top seven teams being relegated to contender's status and needing to notch three wins on Saturday to make it to the semi-finals. The biggest surprise of the day was #1 ranked Ryan Doherty and John Mayer dropping a three set match to the eighth seeded Billy Allen and Theo Brunner. It was Doherty/Mayer's first loss of the AVP season in contrast to the fact that Brunner and Allen are playing in their first tournament together.

Fifth seeds Brad Keenen and Ty Tramblie lost out to brothers Taylor and Trevor Crabb, the 4th seeds. Another set of brothers, 11^th seeded Brian Bomgren and Tim Bomgren earned their way into the quarterfinals after Phil Dauhauser and Nick Lucena pre-emptively forfeited their match as a precaution when Lucena tweaked his shoulder in the team's first match of the day.

On the women's side four of the top six seeds made it through to the quarterfinals undefeated. Top seeds Jennings and Walsh cruised to consecutive two-set wins, neither taking more than 30 minutes, to extend their winning streak to 43 consecutive AVP games. They'll be joined in the quarters by # 2 seeds Kim DiCello and Kendra VanZwieten, # 5 seeds Angela Bensend and Geena Urango and the 6^th ranked Lane Carico and Summer Ross. All of the quarterfinalists wrapped up their victories in just two sets.

Full Results and brackets from Friday's Main Draw can be found here:

http://scoring.avp.com

Highlights for tomorrow's matches include:

• 10:35am: It's win or go home for both #1 Ryan Doherty/John Mayer and qualifiers Madison McKibbin and his brother Riley who entered the day at #14.
• 1:50pm: #1 Kerri Walsh Jennings/April Ross take on #5 Angela Bensend/Geena Urango on Stadium Court
• 2:55pm: #4 Taylor Crabb/Trevor Crabb battle #8 Billy Allen/Theo Brunner

General admission for the AVP Huntington Beach Open is free. Premium ticket packages are available for fans who want to enjoy the tournament in style at www.avp.com/tickets. Matches will be streamed live at www.avp.com, with the men's and women's finals televised live on NBCSN at 3:30pm ET/12:30pm PT.

The AVP thanks its partners: Barefoot, Jaybird, Samuel Adams, Smartypants Vitamins, Wescom, and Wilson for their support of the AVP Huntington Beach Open.