Pairs Announced For FIVB Long Beach Presidents Cup Exhibition

2017 FIVB Long Beach Presidents Cup

• July 12-16
• Long Beach, California
• Double-gender

The teams have been announced for the upcoming event in Long Beach Presidents Cup, that will be hosted by the FIVB from July 12-16. The tournament will host eight USA teams, per gender, with them facing some of the top-eight international teams in the games.

The Format of the tournament will feature two pools of four USA teams and two pools of four international teams. Following the conclusion of this round, the top two squads from each pool will advance to a single-elimination bracket. These single-elimination brackets will continue to be split between USA teams and international crews. This formatting sets up USA versus international medal matches.

USA Teams

Women

• Brooke Sweat/Summer Ross
• April Ross/Lauren Fendrick
• Sara Hughes/Kelly Claes
• Brittany Hochevar/Emily Day
• Kerri Walsh Jennings/Nicole Branagh
• Kimberly DiCello/Emily Stockman
• Betsi Flint/Kelley Larsen
• Lane Carico/Caitlin Ledoux
• Heather McGuire/Kendra Vanzwieten (Reserve)
• Irene Pollock/Amanda Dowdy (Reserve)

Walsh Jennings and April Ross have the potential to meet up in this tournament, following their breakup. The two are both entered in the FIVB World Tour event in Porec, which is two weeks prior to this event, but their chances of meeting up are higher in this formatting.

Sweat and Summer Ross are looking to continue their great season with some tough competition in Long Beach. Hughes and Claes have been silently back in the back throughout the past few World Tour events, but still finishing up high enough to begin making a name for themselves.

Men

• Phil Dalhausser/Nick Lucena
• Casey Patterson/Theo Brunner
• Jake Gibb/Taylor Crabb
• John Hyden/Ryan Doherty
• Sean Rosenthal/Trevor Crabb
• Stafford Slick/Billy Allen
• Marty Lorenz/Mark Burik
• Casey Jennings/Bill Kolinske
• John Mayer/Jeremy Casebeer (reserve)

Dalhausser/Lucena recently took the first place position at the FIVB World Tour event in Moscow and are looking to keep their dominance on the sand going. In addition, the two have finished in first place in two of the three AVP Tour stops so far.

Patterson/Brunner are consistently finishing in a high position at all tournament they compete in, while Gibb/Taylor Crabb just took the top spot at the AVP Tour stop in New York.

International Teams

Women

• Larissa Franca/Talita Antunes (Brazil)
• Laura Ludwig/Kira Walkenhorst (Germany)
• Madelein Meppelink/Sophie van Gestel (the Netherlands)
• Brandie Wilkerson/Heather Bansley (Canada)
• Joana Heidrich/Anouk Verge-Depre (Switzerland
• Chantal Laboureur/Julia Sude (Germany)
• Josi Alves/Lili Maestrini (Brazil)
• Sarah Pavan/Melissa Humana-Paredes (Canada)

As of July 19, Franca/Antunes are now ranked at number two in the FIVB World Tour rankings, but first overall in the FIVB World Rankings. As far as top-10 teams go in the tournament (FIVB World Rankings), there are two other teams competing that are on the list – Sude/Laboureur (#2) and Ludwig/Walkenhorst (#4).

Men

• Pablo Herrera/Adrian Gavira (Spain)
• Ben Saxton/Chaim Schalk (Canada)
• Bartosz Losiak/Piotr Kantor (Poland)
• Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen (the Netherlands)
• Alvaro Filho/Saymon Santos (Brazil)
• Markus Bockermann/Lars Fluggen (Germany)
• Alex Ranghieri/Marco Caminati (Italy)
• Sam Pedlow/Sam Schachter (Canada)

On the FIVB World Tour, Filho/Santos are now ranked third on the list, but sit back at #7 in the World Rankings. The pair began the season with a victory at the FIVB World Tour event in Fort Lauderdale. Gavira/Herrera are the only other team to rank in the top-10 on the international side of the competition, sitting at #4 in the World Rankings.

Broadcast Schedule

The matches will air on ESPN Networks throughout the tournament.

The matches on July 13-14 will be aired on ESPN3 while switching over the ESPN2 for the 2 and 3 PM PT matches on July 14. On July 15, the women’s semifinals will air live on ESPN2, bronze medal on ESPN3 and the finals on ESPN. On July 16, the men’s bronze medal match will air on ESPN3 with the finals airing live on ESPN2.