The four U.S. Olympians were in gold-medal form today as Kerri Walsh Jennings & April Ross and Phil Dalhausser & Nick Lucena were crowned champions of the AVP New York City Open. Both finals featured dazzling play on both sides of the net as the capacity crowd enjoyed world-class beach volleyball along the scenic Hudson River.
The AVP New York City Open also set a beach volleyball attendance record for both New York and the entire Northeast region with more than 25,000 fans on-site over the four-day event, besting the previous record of 18,000 from the 2008 AVP Kingston Open in Brooklyn. That includes beach volleyball events in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Maryland since the AVP Tour was founded. The AVP New York City Open, which was played in Manhattan’s west side along Hudson River Park’s Piers 25 & 26, has a total purse of $150,000, with equal payouts for men and women.
This is the 50th consecutive match win and 10th straight title on the AVP tour for three-time Olympic gold medalist Kerri Walsh Jennings & Olympic silver medalist April Ross as they defeated number two seeds Lane Carico & Summer Ross 21-16, 21-18 in an intense 55-minute battle on Stadium Court, which was televised live on NBC. Earlier in the day, Walsh Jennings & Ross advanced to the championship match with a solid straight-set victory over 14th seeded surprise semi-finalists Kelly Claes & Sara Hughes (21-18, 21-19). Kerri Walsh Jennings has had great success in the state of New York, winning all three tournaments in Brooklyn (2006-08) and now the AVP NYC Open.
On the men’s side, this is the third AVP title for Olympic gold medalist Phil Dalhausser & future Olympian Nick Lucena, who defeated 8th seeded Jeremy Casebeer & Sean Rosenthal 21-19, 21-12 in a thrilling 50-minute men’s final. The trip to the Big Apple is the 32nd AVP tournament appearance for Dalhausser & Lucena, and today marks their 5th AVP championship match appearance. Earlier in the day, Dalhausser & Lucena needed just 36 minutes to advance to the championship match with an imposing semi-final victory over 6th seeded Avery Drost & Billy Kolinske 21-8, 21-13.
Results and brackets from Sunday’s action can be found here:
Men: http://www.bvbinfo.com/Tournament.asp?ID=3231&Process=Matches
Women: http://www.bvbinfo.com/Tournament.asp?ID=3232&Process=Matches
The AVP thanks its partners: Barefoot, Jaybird, Samuel Adams, Smartypants Vitamins, Wilson and nycgo for their support of the AVP New York City Open.