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July 6, 2007

Deep sand shapes Seaside's play
Eight men's and women's teams remain spotless
By Monique Moyal / AVP.com

SEASIDE HEIGHTS, N.J. — With two days of play in the books and no rain
delays — knock on wood — here at the 2007 AVP Seaside Heights Open presented
by Bud Light eight main draw teams remain unblemished for both the men and
the women.

The scenery in Seaside is a bit different than past weeks, and players will
have to get back in the groove of actual beach play in the next two days,
especially with the Long Beach Open coming in two weeks.

"This weekend is tougher than it has been in the past, being on the beach,"
said Annett Davis. "We haven't been on a real beach [in a while], the sand
is really deep. The parking lots [of previous weeks] are really shallow and
thin, and it's been raining so it is really hard-packed. This is really deep
and makes it tough to run around."

Since Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh are missing from the women's main
draw, many teams have a shot at taking only the second title of the year
that has not been won by the usual top-seeded pair.

Play begins Saturday morning at 9:30 a.m. EDT for half of the contender's
bracket, both male and female. About one hour later at 10:30 a.m., the
contender's bracket finishes up Round 2.

Then the winner's bracket can begin at 11:30, with eight undefeated teams
still left for the men and eight for the women.

Undefeated and poised to grab a title for the women are No. 1 Tyra
Turner-Rachel Wacholder, No. 9 Paula Roca-Sarah Straton, fifth-seeded Jen
Boss-April Ross and No. 4 Dianne DeNecochea-Barbra Fontana.

Picking up play at 12:30 p.m. will be Davis and Jenny Johnson Jordan, No. 6
Holly McPeak and Logan Tom, 10th-seeded Ashley Ivy-Heather Lowe and
second-seeded Nicole Branagh-Elaine Youngs.

The No. 7 and 8 seeds, Angela Lewis-Priscilla Lima and Angie Akers-Brooke
Hanson, respectively, are not to be found in the winner's bracket after
dropping their Friday matches. They will have to try their hands at the
contender's bracket first thing Saturday.

Things are a bit more complicated from the men's side.

Left in the eight remaining winner's bracket matches are the No. 1, 2, 3, 6,
7, 9, 12 and 20 seeds. Top-seeded Phil Dalhausser-Todd Rogers take on No. 9
Matt Olson-Jason Ring and No. 12 Ty Loomis-Hans Stolfus will see 20th-seeded
Ryan Mariano-Ed Ratledge at 11:30.

The noon hour features matchups for third-seeded Mike Lambert-Stein Metzger,
No. 6 Dax Holdren-Jeff Nygaard, seventh-seeded John Hyden-Brad Keenan and
No. 2 Jake Gibb-Sean Rosenthal.

Everyone else still alive lies in the contender's bracket and must win out
to avoid elimination.

Already falling victim to premature elimination here on the Atlantic beach
were No. 13 John Mayer and new partner Chad Turner. They, like seven other
men's teams and eight women's leave New Jersey in 25th place.

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Friday's highlights: The women's side saw the top teams advancing as no seed
lower than 10th remains in the winner's bracket. On the men's side, though,
No. 12 Ty Loomis and Hans Stolfus will play No. 20 Ryan Mariano and Ed
Ratledge in a winner's bracket matchup of low seeds.

Match of the day: In the first round, No. 11 Nick Lucena and Will Strickland
were extended by the 22nd seeded team of Tyler Hildebrand and Scott Lane,
24-22, 18-21, 15-11.

Upset of the day: Qualifiers Kevin Dake and Lucas Wisniakowski, defeated and
ousted No. 13 John Mayer and Chad Turner, 26-28, 21-19, 15-13, in a
contender's bracket match.

Karch watch: Kiraly and partner Kevin Wong took their first match of the day
by upending Dake and Wisniakowski but then dropped their succeeding match to
Mariano and Ratledge to fall into the contender's bracket. They will play
Eric Fonoimoana and Albert Hannemann on Saturday in the contender's bracket.

Start/finish:Gates will open at 9:00 a.m. ET on Saturday with play beginning
at 9:30. Competition will conclude at approximately 6:00 p.m. ET.

Weather forecast: A high of 88 degrees under sunny skies is expected
Saturday with chance of precipitation projected at 10 percent.

Match to watch: No. 4 Barbra Fontana and Dianne DeNecochea will face No. 5
April Ross and Jennifer Boss in the winner's bracket on Saturday.

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