An Inside Look at the Haiyang Three Star, Qualifying Began Wednesday

FIVB Haiyang Three Star

• Haiyang, China
• July 17-22, 2018
• Schedule/Results

Forty one men’s teams and 31 women’s teams will vie for the FIVB Haiyang titles this week, including Americans Casey Patterson/Stafford Slick, Emily Stockman/Kelley Larsen and Betsi Flint/Emily Day.

Qualifying began on Wednesday with four men’s teams moving on to Thursday’s main draw play, including Americans Adam Roberts/Troy Field.

Also moving on through the qualifiers were:

• Cameron Wheelan/Jake MacNeil (Canada)
• Romain DiGiantommaso/Jeremy Silvestre (France)
• Wang Yangwei/Lei Li (China)

All four matches were decided in straight sets.

The Haiyang Three Star is in the seventh FIVB event in China thus far during the 2017-18 season.

With the remainder of the tournament still ahead, here’s a look at the field.

Men

Top Seeds

• No. 1 Peng Gao/Yang Li (China)
• No. 2 Grant O’Gorman/Ben Saxton (Canada)
• No. 3 George Wanderley/Thiago Santos Barbosa (Brazil)
• No. 4 Slick/Patterson (USA)
• No. 5 Alexander Walkenhorst/Sven Winter (Germany)

Other Notable Men’s Teams

• United States: No. 6 Bill Kolinske/Miles Evans,  No. 18 Chase Budinger/Sean Rosenthal
• Brazil: Alvaro Filho/Luciano Ferreira de Paula

China’s Gao/Li are in search FIVB medal of the year, following gold at the Singapore Two Star (June 24) and bronze at the Anapa One Star (July 8) and Jinjiang Two Star (June 3).

O’Gorman/Saxton won the Sydney Two Star back in November and have posted three fifth place efforts since then: Espinho Four Star (July 8), Warsaw Four Star (July 1) and Hague Four Star (Jan. 7).

Slick/Patterson earned their best finish of the year at the Lucerne Three Star on May 13, finishing fifth.

Walkenhorst/Winter’s last FIVB podium finish came on Feb. 24 in a bronze medal at the Kish Island Three Star.

Women

Top Seeds

• No. 1 Fan Wang/Xinyi Xia (China)
• No. 2 Stockman/Larsen (USA)
• No. 3 Flint/Day (USA)
• No. 4 Sarah Schneider/Cinja Tillmann (Germany)
• No. 5 Phoebe Bell/Jessyka Ngauamo (Australia)

Other Notable Teams

• United States: No. 6 Amanda Dowdy/Irene Pollock, No. 22 Bree Scarbrough/Aurora Davis, No. 24 Caitlin Ledoux/Sarah Sponcil
• Canada: No. 19 Nicole McNamara/Megan McNamara ‘

Wang/Xia boast a pair of runnerup finishes in 2018, earning the silver medal at the Lucerne Three Star (May 13) and Nanjing Two Star (June 17).

Larsen/Stockman finished among the top eight at the Gstaad Major last week and finished third at the Lucerne Three Star (May 13).

Flint/Day are looking to best a fifth-place effort at the Lucerne Three Star on May 13. The pair has earned back to back AVP Tour titles, winning the Seattle Open and San Francisco Open.

Bell/Ngauamo are coming off the title at the Daegu One Star on Sunday, while the McNamara twins are coming off the FISU World University Championships.