USA’s Larsen/Flint among eight women qualifiers for main draw at $800,000 FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam

Long Beach, Calif., USA, August 23, 2016 — Creating a good start to their first event as a team on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour, USA’s Kelley Larsen/Betsi Flint won two ‘home-sand’ qualifying matches Tuesday to earn one of eight women’s main draw spots in this week’s ASICS World Series of Beach Volleyball that features the $800,000 FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam in sunny Southern California.The 2016 FIVB World Tour regular season is concluding in the United States with the double-gender ASICS World Series of Beach Volleyball being held Tuesday through Sunday on a colorful purpose-built venue at Alamitos Beach adjacent to Marina Green Park on East Shoreline Drive.In all, three teams from Brazil, two from the United States and one each from Germany, the Netherlands and Spain advanced from two rounds of qualifying to advance to the 32-team main draw.While this is the fourth consecutive year that the FIVB World Tour has stopped in Long Beach, Calif., the ASICS World Series of Beach Volleyball featuring the $800,000 FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam is the 22nd men’s event of the season and 19th women’s event on the 2016 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour that started with three events at the end of 2015.USA NEWCOMERSNeeding to fight through two qualifying matches including the advancing match against a higher-seeded American duo, USA’s Larsen/Flint, both just 24 years old, advanced to their first FIVB World Tour main draw.  In their first match, the young Americans, both former top collegiate indoor players, open their qualifying tournament by defeating Japan’s Chiyo Suzuki/Mai Tanaka in two sets, 21-19, 21-11 in just 32 minutes. They came back in the deciding round to upset USA’S more experienced Kendra VanZwieten/Kim DiCello in straight sets, 22-20, 21-16 in 36 minutes.Larsen played collegiately at Pepperdine while Flint played volleyball at Loyola Marymount University. As a team this is their four FIVB World Tour event. The youthful duo has one gold medal to their credit already on both the domestic AVP Tour and the NORCECA confederation tour.A happy Larsen said afterwards, “It was really an exciting match-USA versus USA. It’s a team we’ve seen a lot and we’ve always had tough battles with them. They’re a good team. I thought our serving and passing was great. Our defense was awesome and I thought we clicked really well and played in a good rhythm today. We’re really excited to be going against so many Olympians and many of the world’s best teams.”LONG BEACH QUALIFIERSBesides USA’s Larsen/Flint, the other teams who advanced to the women’s main draw are Brazil’s Liliane Maestrini/Maria Antonelli, Brazil’s Josemari Alves/Fernanda Alves, Brazil’s Carolina Maximo/Ana Patricia Ramos, Germany’s Kim Behrens/Anni Schumacher, Netherlands’ Joy Stubbe/Jolien Sinnema, Spain’s Ester …

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