Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, May 14, 2016 — Following the sixth of eight straight weeks of events and only visit of the year in Turkey, the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) is heading to USA to continue the qualifying process for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games through the 2016 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour.
The string of eight consecutive events continues in the USA on Monday with the double-gender $150,000 FIVB Cincinnati Open, presented by the Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP). The event is also the only Olympic qualifying event in the USA this year.
The seventh tournament in the stretch of eight straight events, the FIVB Cincinnati Open will be played in the famed Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason, Ohio. Next week the FIVB World Tour returns to the Russia for the double-gender FIVB Moscow Grand Slam.
Playing in the United States for the first time this year following last week’s FIVB Antalya Open in Turkey, there are 47 men’s teams from 20 countries and 42 women’s teams from 18 countries in the USA for the FIVB Cincinnati Open, presented by AVP. The FIVB World Tour is also scheduled to return to the USA for the FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam (Asics World Series of Beach Volleyball) in Southern California on Aug. 22-28.
The double-gender $150,000 FIVB Cincinnati Open, presented by AVP starts Monday and concludes on Saturday. It is the 14th men’s event of the season and 11th women’s event on the 2016 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour that started with three events at the end of 2015. The FIVB Cincinnati Open will be played on four purpose-built courts at the Lindner complex with four additional purpose-built practice courts at the nearby Sports Express facility.
CINCINNATI SCHEDULE
While the AVP has held domestic tour events in the area every year since 2005, the FIVB is visiting the greater Cincinnati metropolitan area for the first time, The FIVB Cincinnati Open, presented by AVP is a double-gender event with 32 main draw teams per gender. The format is the same for each gender with the schedule having qualifying tournament for both genders on Tuesday to determine the final eight teams for each 32-team main draw. On Wednesday and Thursday, each gender will be split into eight, four-team pools to play three matches over the two days. The top three teams in the eight pools (24 total teams) will advance from pool play to the single-elimination knockout rounds.
On Friday, both genders will play three rounds of eliminations ending under the lights with the quarterfinals on two courts during the evening.
On Saturday, the final eight matches will be played all on the center court at the Lindner Family Tennis Center. Starting at 10 a.m. the women’s semifinals and medal matches followed by the two men’s semifinals at 4:30 p.m. After the men’s semis will be the women’s awarding ceremony followed by the men’s medal matches with the men’s awarding ceremony closing the tournament at approximately 10:30 p.m.
As needed, country quota playoff matches will be played on Monday for each gender to determine the final teams in their respective qualification tournaments.
USA’S FIVB HISTORY
With the first USA visit being held in Miami, Florida in 1994, the 1997 event was the inaugural FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships, held in the Tennis Center stadium at the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA). Other US events included Atlanta hosting the 1996 Olympics and in 2015 Fort Lauderdale, Fla. hosted the inaugural Swatch FIVB World Tour Finals. The other scheduled stop in the United States in 2016 is the FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam in Southern California.
In all, 11 cities in the USA have hosted an FIVB event—Atlanta, Carson, Calif., Chicago, Clearwater, Fla., Fort Lauderdale, Hermosa Beach, Calif., Long Beach, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City and St. Petersburg, Fla.
Through the 2015 events (three last year), the United States has hosted a total of 28 FIVB World Tour events (14 men, 14 women) with Brazil tied with the USA in the men’s medal count and leads the women’s total. In the men’s totals after 14 events, Brazil and the USA are co-leaders with 14 each, Argentina, Norway, Spain and Switzerland have two each and with one men’s medal each the USA are Canada, Italy, Netherlands and Poland.
After 14 FIVB World Tour women’s events held in the United States through 2015, Brazil leads the medal parade with 21 total medals followed by the USA with 14, Australia and Germany with three each and with one women’s medal in the USA is the Slovak Republic.
WELCOME TO CINCINNATI
Cincinnati is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Ohio, USA. It is the third-largest city in Ohio and the 65th-largest city in the United States. It had a population of 296,945 at the last census. The population of the metropolitan area is over 2.3 million – the 28th-largest Metropolitan area in the United States and the largest centered in Ohio. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the north side of the confluence of the Licking River with the Ohio River. The Ohio River forms the border between the states of Ohio and Kentucky.
Cincinnati is home to two major professional sports teams, the Cincinnati Reds, the oldest franchise in Major League Baseball, and the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League. The University of Cincinnati, founded in 1819, is one of the 50 largest in the United States. Cincinnati is known for its historic architecture. In the late 1800s, Cincinnati was commonly referred to as "Paris of America", due mainly to such ambitious architectural projects as the Music Hall, Cincinnatian Hotel and Shillito Department Store.
TOP SEEDS
Olympians and hopeful Olympians abound as many of the world’s best beach volleyball teams are entered in this week’s FIVB Cincinnati Open, presented by AVP.
The top-seeded preliminary men’s teams for the FIVB Cincinnati Open, presented by AVP are USA’s top-seeded Jake Gibb/Casey Patterson, USA’s second-seeded Phil Dalhausser/Nick Lucena, Canada’s third-seeded Chaim Schalk/Ben Saxton, USA’s fourth-seeded John Hyden/Tri Bourne and Mexico’s fifth-seeded Lombaro Ontiveros/Juan Virgen.
The second-five preliminary men’s pre-seeds competing in FIVB Cincinnati Open, presented by AVP are Germany’s sixth-seeded Marus Bockermann/Larrs Fluggen, Canada’s seventh-seeded Josh Binstock/Sam Schachter, Germany’s 10th-seeded Jonathan Erdmann/Kay Matysik, Chile’s ninth-seeded cousins Marco Grimalt/Esteban Grimalt and Australia’s 10th-seeded Isaac Kapa/Christopher McHugh.
For the FIVB Cincinnati Open, presented by AVP, the top preliminary pre-seeded women’s teams are USA’s top-seeded Kerri Walsh Jennings/April Ross, Canada’s second seeded Sarah Pavan/Heather Bansley, USA’s third-seeded Lauren Fendrick/Brooke Sweat, Canada’s fourth-seeded Jamie Lynn Broder/Kristina Valjas and Argentina’s fifth-seeded Ana Gallay/Georgina Klug.
The second-five preliminary pre-seeded women’s team competing in Cincinnati are Spain’s sixth-seeded Liliana Fernandez/Elsa Baquerizo, Germany’s seventh-seeded Katrin Holtwick/Ilka Semmler, USA’s eighth-seeded Jennifer Kessy/Emily Day, Vanuatu’s ninth-seeded Linline Matauatu/Miller Pata and Brazil’s 10th-seeded Fernanda Alves/Josemari Alves.
FIVB CINCINNATI OPEN PURSE/POINTS
The gold medal teams at the FIVB Cincinnati Open, presented by AVP, will split $11,000 and 500 points, the silver $8,000 and 450 points, the bronze $6,000 400 points and fourth place $4,500 and 450 points.
TEAM USA
As the host nation for the FIVB Cincinnati Open, presented by AVP, the USA has five men’s teams pre-seeded into the main draw this event and three teams in the qualification tournament. USA’s men’s main draw teams are top-seeded Gibb/Patterson, second-seeded Dalhausser/Lucena, fourth-seeded Hyden/Bourne, 12th-seeded Ryan Doherty/John Mayer and 24th-seeded Todd Rogers/Robbie Page.
Entered in the men’s qualification tournament from the USA are brother’s Taylor Crabb/Trevor Crabb, Jeremy Casebeer/Derek Olson and Raffe Paulis/Ian Satterfield.
As the host nation for the FIVB Cincinnati Open, the USA has four women’s teams pre-seeded into the main draw for this event along with four teams in the qualification tournament. USA’s confirmed women’s main draw teams are top-seeded Walsh Jennings/A. Ross, third-seeded Fendrick/Sweat, eighth-seeded Kessy/Day, and 17th-seeded Brittany Hochevar/Jennifer Fopma.
Entered in the women’s qualification tournament from the USA are Summer Ross/Lane Carico, Kim Dicello/Kendra Vanzwieten, Kelly Reeves/Allison Daily McColloch and Irene Hester/Caitlin Ledoux.
MORE CINCY INFO
Additional information on the event is available online both at FIVB.org and AVP.com. While general admission to the tournament is free, tickets are available online for the VIP prime seating areas at https://avp.ticketspice.com/cincinnati-ticketing.
ON THE HORIZON
With placement points for the FIVB Olympic Rankings for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games continuing, the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour continues with events over eight straight weeks through the end of May. In all, Brazil is hosting five international events in 2016. In addition to Maceió, Rio, Vitoria and Fortaleza, the Brazil events conclude with the Rio 2016 Olympic Games (Aug. 6-18).
The FIVB World Tour is in Europe for two events. Up first was in Russia last week followed by this week’s FIVB Antalya Open in Turkey (May 10-15). The tour then visits the United States for the first time in 2016 for the FIVB Cincinnati Open (May 17-22) in Ohio and then returns to Russia for the FIVB Moscow Grand Slam (May 24-29). After a one week respite, the final Olympic qualifying event on the FIVB World Tour will be the FIVB Hamburg Major Series in Germany (June 7-12).
GROWING HISTORY
The FIVB Cincinnati Open in the United States will be the 343rd men’s tournament since the FIVB began play in 1987 and the 304th FIVB women’s tournament since their competition started in 1992.
FIVB 2016
Based in Lausanne, Switzerland as the international governing body for the Olympic sports of Beach Volleyball and Volleyball, the 2016 FIVB Beach Volleyball calendar featured a purse of US$8.8 million with a season that extended from last October to this October, competing at 23 venues in 13 countries. The schedule includes five FIVB Grand Slams, three Swatch FIVB Major Series events, 14 FIVB Opens and the special Swatch FIVB World Tour Finals in the United States. The showcase event will be the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil (Aug. 6-18).
The 2015 portion of the 2016 FIVB World Tour calendar started in October in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and included two more open events prior to the remainder of the schedule resuming at the FIVB Kish Island Open in Iran in February.
ROAD TO RIO
The Olympic qualification process began in 2015 with all FIVB World Tour events (except the Swatch FIVB World Tour Finals) in 2015 up until June 13, 2016 counting towards the Olympic Ranking in order to determine 15 spots for each gender that will take part in each 24-team field in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games on Copacabana Beach in Brazil in August. Counting the FIVB Fortaleza Open, eight men’s and seven women’s events remain on the Olympic qualifying calendar for the FIVB World Tour.
FIVB WORLD TOUR PURSES
The five FIVB Grand Slam and three Swatch FIVB Major Series competitions in 2016, all double-gender, each have $800,000 in total purses. The total of $500,000 will be the purse for the Swatch FIVB World Tour Season Final which will feature the top eight teams in each gender and two wild card teams.
The 14 FIVB Open tournaments on 2016 calendar, 11 double-gender, and three men’s only, have $150,000 total purses for the double gender events and $75,000 for the single-gender competitions.
The gold medal teams in each gender at FIVB Grand Slam and Swatch FIVB Major Series events split $57,000, the silver $43,000, the bronze $32,000 and fourth place $24,000. The gold medal teams in each gender at FIVB Open tournaments each split $11,000, the silver $8,000, the bronze $6,000 and fourth place $4,500.
FIVB EVENT FORMAT
Implemented in 2013, the format of all the FIVB Beach Volleyball international tournaments – whether FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships, FIVB Beach Volleyball Grand Slam or FIVB Beach Volleyball Open – are the same, featuring pool play followed by single elimination knockout rounds. Country Quota playoffs returned as needed in 2015 to determine the final teams for the qualification tournament.