AVP Hermosa Beach
- July 26-29, 2018
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The qualifying bracket for the AVP Hermosa Beach is under way with eight teams per gender moving on to Friday’s main draw.
Before the main draw action begins, however, a major contender in No. 11 seed Jeremy Casebeer announced he will be competing with a new partner due to a “minor injury not worth aggravating” to Reid Priddy.
Instead, Casebeer told his twitter followers that he will be turning to a “dark horse” in Olympic gold medalist Eric Fonoimoana, to team up with on Hermosa Beach.
Due to a minor injury (not worth aggravating), @reidpriddy is out for Hermosa unfortunately.
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Ended up with quite a dark horse…stoked for the opportunity to compete with Olympic Gold Medalist and SOLSTICE Champ Eric Fonoimoana this weekend 👊🏼🏐✌🏼#thelorax @avpbeach pic.twitter.com/l7SNt4Nx27— Jeremy Casebeer (@shakesbees) July 26, 2018
Fonoimoana won a gold medal in beach volleyball at the 2000 Sydney Olympics with Dain Blanton.
He competed on the AVP Tour for 16 years and was the league’s Most Valuable Player in 2002. He won at least one tournament per year from 1998 to 2004 and ranks in the top 10 all-time in terms of tournaments played.
Fonoimoana is a member of both the UC Santa Barbara Hall of Fame and CBVA Hall of Fame.
The 49-year old is now the varsity coach at his alma mater Mira Costa High School, where the team won its second California State Interscholastic beach volleyball league title in June and sixth straight IVBL crown in May. The team has won 87 straight dual matches in six years under Fonoimoana.
According to the FIVB player database, Fonoimoana’s last international competition was in August 2004 in Klagenfurt, Austria, with teammate Kevin Wong. Fonoimoana’s last AVP podium finish was a third place effort at AVP Fort Lauderdale on April 2, 2006.
Casebeer/Priddy finished third at the AVP Austin Open (May 20) and AVP Seattle Open (June 24), fifth at AVP New York City (June 10) and seventh at the AVP San Francisco (July 8).
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