Monday, March 30, 2015
AVP announces new stops to beach volleyball tour
Four new stops have been added to the Association of Volleyball Professionals 2015 season, but the venerable Manhattan Beach Open and the season-closing AVP Championships in Huntington Beach remain part of the tour.
The tentative schedule, announced Wednesday, opens in New Orleans on May 21 for the women and men. The tour will resume in August as many of the players vie for Olympic spots on the FIVB tour.
The season’s second stop is Seattle (Aug. 6-9), with Manhattan Beach the following weekend. The next three stops are scheduled to be Chicago (Aug. 27-30), Cincinnati (Sept. 3-6) and Huntington Beach (Sept. 10-13).
One additional stop, in the Northeast U.S., will be announced in the coming weeks, the AVP said.
The tour had seven stops last year, with Olympic hopefuls Jake Gibb and Casey Patterson combining to win four of them. On the women’s side, Kerri Walsh Jennings and April Ross won all seven tournaments without dropping a match.
AVP CEO Donald Sun reorganized the tour after it folded on the eve of the 2011 Manhattan Open.
“We are pleased with the progress we have made since 2012, and feel the strength of the 2015 AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour schedule is a testament to our hard work and the proven appeal our sport has across the country,” Sun said. “As we enter a pre-Olympic year, this is undoubtedly a very important time for the AVP and beach volleyball.”
Cincinnati and Chicago have long been favorite stops for the players, though the tour has not been held in Chicago since 2009.
Seattle last held an event in 1990 and New Orleans was a tour stop in 1999.
This will be the 59th Manhattan Open for the men and 49th for the women. The event began in 1960.
Phil Dalhausser and Sean Rosenthal won the men’s Manhattan Beach Open last year and Walsh Jennings combined with Ross to win her record seventh Manhattan Beach title.
The FIVB World Series of Beach Volleyball is scheduled to be held in Long Beach from Aug. 18-23.
DiG Collegiate Sand volleyball poll 3/30/15
http://www.digbeachvolleyball.com/digbeachvolleyball.com/DiG_Poll.html
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