USA’s Walsh Jennings/ Ross leading women’s field to Saturday semis at FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam

Long Beach, California, USA, Aug. 26, 2016 – After an emotional final three days of the Rio 2016 Olympics, Kerri Walsh Jennings and April Ross were greeted by many fans in their return to California. Not all of the well-wishers had any idea how difficult their job would be in the ASICS World Series of Beach Volleyball-FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam.“When people are saying ‘Oh yeah, we’re going to come watch you Saturday and Sunday,’ and they’re saying that on Wednesday, it’s like well, maybe you don’t understand how tough this Tour is,” Ross said. “We believe we’ll be there. I just want people to respect how deep the tour is and how good the world is.”Walsh Jennings and Ross made it to the weekend with two victories on Friday that enabled them to reach Saturday’s semifinals. But they didn’t have to deal with foreign challengers as the defeated fellow Americans Summer Ross and Lane Carico and fellow United States Olympians Lauren Fendrick and Brooke Sweat to get there.The 2016 FIVB World Tour regular season is concluding in the United States with the ASICS World Series of Beach Volleyball being held through Sunday on a colorful purpose-built venue at Alamitos Beach adjacent to Marina Green Park on East Shoreline Drive. The men’s quarterfinals and semifinals along with the women’s semifinals will be played on Saturday. The medal matches and awarding ceremonies for each gender will be played Sunday.ASICS WSOVBWhile the cornerstone of the beach volleyball celebration is the $800,000 FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam (regular season finale of the 2016 FIVB World Tour), the ASICS World Series of Beach Volleyball encompasses a wide variety of additional elements . Also part of the beach festival has been live entertainment, a special celebrity center court match, an expansive vendor’s village, multiple open, junior and youth beach volleyball tournaments and the very special legends of the game tribute dinner all at the event venue. For complete details regarding the entire ASICS WSOBV lineup of events and activities including premium seating tickets, visit the event website at www.wsobv.com.SEMIS SETIn the semifinals, the top-seeded Walsh Jennings and Ross will face Germany’s Chantal Laboreur and Julia Sude, the No. 5 seeds. The winner will face either No. 7 Liliana Fernandez/Elsa Baquerizo of Spain or No. 13 Katrin Holtwick/Ilke Semmler of Germany. In a testament to depth on the FIVB World Tour in 2016, neither of the German semifinalists reached the …

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