USA’s Walsh Jennings/A. Ross advance 3-0 to single eliminations at FIVB Cincinnati Open

Mason, Ohio, USA, May 19, 2016 — Kerri Walsh Jennings and April Ross are entering their next phase as a team and although they know what they’re ultimate goal is, they have no idea what’s in store for them. They continue heading in a ‘Rio’ direction as Olympic hopefuls as they finished undefeated in pool play with a 3-0 match record Thursday at the double-gender FIVB Cincinnati Open, presented by AVP. Friday will include three rounds of eliminations ending with the quarterfinals under the lights at the famed Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason, Ohio.  They only know that their coach, Marcio Sicoli, will come up with something that will give them the impetus to get to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and win the Beach Volleyball gold medal.And no longer are they fazed by Sicoli’s phases.The event, which is one of the last three Olympic qualifiers through the FIVB World Tour is being held through Saturday and is the seventh tournament in the stretch of eight straight events on the FIVB World Tour. Next week the FIVB World Tour returns to Russia for the double-gender FIVB Moscow Grand Slam.“What he does is he has a very broad view and he fine-tunes it and hones in every phase,” Walsh Jennings said after they winning their pool in the FIVB Cincinnati Open presented by the AVP. “It’s really fun because he has this crazy, mad-scientist plan it feels like sometimes, and we have such faith in him. Everything he does to us and for us has such a purpose, too, it and it’s really cool to go through it. Once you go through it, you recognize ‘Oh, that’s what he was doing.’“We had a real gnarly week last week and when all was said and done, he explained to us why and we’re like ‘Ah, you’re a genius.’ I don’t know and I don’t care, but I know it’s going to be right.”Sicoli hasn’t been around to see his pupils reach the requirements necessary to qualify for the Olympics, since he has a wedding to attend — his own. “He’s the best coach in the world and we’re the best team in the world because of it,” Walsh Jennings said. “We don’t want to limit ourselves and Marcio has high expectations and he sees stuff that we don’t see in ourselves.”Ross and Walsh Jennings were one of six United States teams to advance past pool play. The single-elimination portion begins Friday en route to Saturday’s championship match.The 24-team field will be reduced to four teams for Saturday’s semifinals and medal matches.The other Americans moving on are Lauren Fendrick and Brooke Sweat plus …

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