AVP crowns champions of 2014 Milwaukee Open

Three-time Olympic gold medalist Kerri Walsh Jennings adds to her accolades, winning first-ever career title in Wisconsin and matching the all-time women’s career record for victories on U.S. soil with 69;

AVP 2013 men’s rookie of the year Tri Bourne teams with John Hyden to upset top seeds and go on

to earn first team title

MILWAUKEE, WISC. (July 6, 2014) – The excitement continued Sunday at Bradford Beach as the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour concluded its three-day tournament along the shores of Lake Michigan by crowning the tour’s first champions of Milwaukee Open since 1998. In front of a capacity crowd, Kerri Walsh Jennings and April Ross took home the women’s AVP Milwaukee Open title, while Tri-Bourne and John Hyden earned the men’s title.

The women’s final saw the top two seeded women’s teams face off, with top-seeded Kerri Walsh Jennings, a three-time Olympic gold medalist, and teammate April Ross, a 2012 Olympic silver medalist, prevailing over Lauren Fendrick and Brooke Sweat, 15-21, 21-16, 15-13. Sunday marked the second time in as many tournaments that the two teams have met in an AVP final. For Walsh Jennings and Ross, it marked the second AVP title in 2014 and eighth overall since they joined forces in September of 2013.

Already the all-time winningest female player in beach volleyball history with 118 career victories, Walsh Jennings’ win in Milwaukee tied her for the all-time lead in U.S. tournament wins with 69, a record she now shares with her longtime former partner, Misty May-Treanor.

After winning their first match of the morning to earn a berth into the semifinals, seventh-seeded Nick Lucena and Ryan Doherty forfeited their semifinal match due to injury, sending their opponents – Olympic gold medalist Phil Dalhausser and two-time Olympian Sean Rosenthal – the sixth seed, through to the men’s final.

Dalhausser and Rosenthal faced the second-seeded team of Tri Bourne and John Hyden in the men’s final. Despite being the lower seed, Dalhausser and Rosenthal held a decisive advantage in the matchup, having won all three previous meetings between the two teams on the AVP Tour.

Bourne and Hyden played their way out of the contender’s bracket on Sunday morning and went on to defeat the tour’s top-seeded team of Jake Gibb and Casey Patterson in the semifinals, 21-19, 23-21, advancing to the team’s third finals match since joining forces in 2013. Not allowing history to repeat itself, Bourne and Hyden defeated Dalhausser and Rosenthal, 21-15, 21-18 to earn the team’s second win since partnering in 2013.  For the veteran Hyden, the win marked his 23^rd open title, and it was the first since 2012 victory for Bourne – the 2013 AVP Rookie of the Year. It was his first tournament title on the AVP Tour.