Samoilovs/Plavins, Bansley/Wilkerson Take Inaugural p1440 Titles

  0 Wendy Mayer | September 30th, 2018 | News, p1440, Pro Beach

P1440 SAN JOSE INVITATIONAL

When three-time Olympic gold medalist Kerri Walsh Jennings founded the p1440 beach volleyball tour/concert series and health and wellness event, she had hopes for an international event featuring the best in the world.

“Something that I am really proud of that we are doing in year one is that we are scheduling around the four and five-star FIVB events and all of the AVP events,” Walsh Jennings said. “That was really important to my husband and I because we want to give the athletes more opportunities to compete. We want to bring competition to the market and we want to give the athletes more choices.”

The tour’s debut in San Jose brought just that with four international teams making the finals.

Latvians Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Martins Plavins won the men’s title, besting Norwegian stars Anders Mol/Christian Sorum in straight sets.

Canadians Heather Bansley/Brandie Wilkerson defeated Brazilians Carol Solberg Salgado/Maria Antonelli in straight sets for the women’s title.

Both winning teams took home the $28,000 top prize, while second place earned $18,000 and the two third place finishers pocketed $12,000.

The men’s semifinals also included two American teams in Reid Priddy/Jeremy Casebeer and p1440 sponsored Bill Kolinske/Miles Evans.

The Latvians moved past Kolinske and Evans in straight sets, while the Norwegians bested Priddy/Casebeer in tiebreak to reach the final, each standing at 4-0 entering the championship match.

In the contender’s bracket, Kolinske/Evans topped Casey Jennings/Pedro Solberg (Brazil) to reach the semifinals after falling to Mol/Sorum in the winner’s bracket on Saturday.

Priddy/Casebeer earned their semifinal berth by picking up three wins in the contender’s bracket, topping Americans Sean Rosenthal/Chase Budinger, Canadians Grant O’Gorman/Ben Saxton and Spain’s Pablo Herrera/Adrian Gavira to set up Sunday’s semifinal match with Mol/Sorum. 

In women’s semifinal action, Solberg/Antonelli bested Walsh Jennings and her partner Switzerland’s Anouk Verge-Depre in straight sets, while Bansley/Wilkerson edged past Jolien Sinnema (Netherlands)/Taiana Lima (Brazil) in tiebreak.

Solberg/Antonelli and Sinnema/Lima had made their way through the winners bracket with three wins.

Walsh Jennings/Verge-Depre bested Jessica Gaffney (USA)/Agnieszka Pregowska (Poland) in their lone contender’s bracket match to earn the semifinal meeting with Solberg/Antonelli. Bansley/Wilkerson meanwhile fought their way to the semifinals with three contender’s bracket wins all over American pairs: Jessica Sykora/Delaney Knudsen, Caitlin Ledoux/Geena Urango and Kelley Larsen/Emily Stockman.

Men’s Results

  1. Samoilovs/Plavins (Latvia)
  2. Mol/Sorum (Norway)
  3. Kolinske/Evans (USA), Priddy/Casebeer (USA)

Women’s Results

  1. Bansley/Wilkerson (Canada)
  2. Solberg/Antonelli (Brazil)
  3. Walsh Jennings (USA)/Verge-Depre (Switzerland), Sinnema (Netherlands)/Lima (Brazil)

Leave a Reply

avatar

About Wendy Mayer

Wendy Mayer

Wendy Mayer has worked in athletics media relations for the last 20 years. The Northwest Missouri State alumna is currently senior writer for Volleymob.com after spending the last 15 years with Purdue athletics.

Read More »

Don't want to miss anything?

Subscribe to our newsletter and receive our latest updates!