USA’s Walsh Jennings/Ross vs. Spain’s Lili/Elsa for women’s gold medal Sunday at $800,000 FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam

Long Beach, California, USA, August 27, 2016 – Continuing to relish in the joy of playing in their home country and lapping up the affection poured on them by the cheering stadium capacity crowd, USA’s 2016 Olympic bronze medalists Kerri Walsh Jennings/April Ross marched triumphantly to a semifinal match win over Germany Saturday to advance to Sunday’s gold medal match at the ASICS World Series of Beach Volleyball featuring the $800,000 FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam in Los Angeles, Calif. The top-seeded American duo will now meet Spain’s seventh-seeded Olympians Liliana Fernandez/Elsa Baquerizo in the gold medal match on Sunday afternoon.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 bronze and gold 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.FIVB LONG BEACH GRAND SLAM PURSE/POINTSThe gold medal teams at the FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam will split $57,000 and 800 points, the silver $43,000 and 720 points, the bronze $32,000 and 640 points and fourth place $24,000 and 560 points.GOLD MEDAL PREVIEWIn a gold medal match pitting a pair of multiple Olympians, USA’s Walsh Jennings/Ross will be pitted against Spain’s Lili/Elsa.This will be the fourth meeting between the two teams with the Americans having an unbeaten 3-0 record against the Spaniards including two this season. USA’s Walsh Jennings/Ross defeated Spain’s Lili/Elsa in two sets in the semifinals of this year’s FIVB Cincinnati Open and the quarterfinals at this year’s Swatch FIVB Hamburg Major in Germany. This is the 19th final four appearance for USA’s Walsh Jennings/Ross in 30 career FIVB World Tour events as a team. They have 10 gold medals, three silver medals, three silver medals and two fourth-place finishes. Individually, this is the 116th FIVB World Tour event for both Americans. Walsh Jennings has 54 FIVB gold medals and Ross has 20 career FIVB World Tour gold medals.This is the 10th final four appearance for Spain’s Lili/Elsa in 98 career FIVB World Tour events as a team. They have won four silver medals, two bronze medals and have three fourth place finishes. Individually, this is the 98th FIVB World Tour event for Lili and the 100th for Elsa.BRONZE MEDAL PREVIEWIt will be an all-German battle for the bronze medal as Germany’s fifth-seeded Julia Sude/Chantal Laboreur will line up against Germany’s 13th-seeded Katrin Holtwick/Ilke Semmler It will be the fifth meeting between the two teams with Holtwick/Semmler holding a 3-1 lead in their series history which has seen Holtwick/Semmler win the last three meetings after Sude/Laboureur won the first meeting between the two compatriot teams at the FIVB Moscow Grand …

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