Lausanne, Switzerland, September 28, 2015 — Ending the regular season last week in China, the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) is back in the USA for the inaugural $500,000 Swatch FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Finals.
The third FIVB international event in the United States this season features 10 men’s and 10 women’s teams from around the world being held Tuesday through Sunday in Florida on the purpose-built venue at the Fort Lauderdale Beach Park on Seabreeze Boulevard. The internationally televised event includes a FIVB-record $100,000 first place purse for each gender.
This will be the 14th men’s and 14th women’s all-time FIVB event held in the United States.
SWATCH SCHEDULE
The Swatch FIVB World Tour Finals will feature four days of round-robin pool play with the teams divided into two pools. The women’s quarterfinals will be played on Friday, semifinals on Saturday and the bronze and gold medal matches on Sunday. For the men, their quarterfinals and semifinals will be on Saturday with the medal matches on Sunday as well. Detailed tournament information is available at the event website at www.swatchmajorseries.com
USA’S FIVB HISTORY
Fort Lauderdale is one of 11 U.S. cities to host an international FIVB beach volleyball event. Others have been Atlanta (1996 Olympics), Carson, Calif., Clearwater, Fla., Chicago, Hermosa Beach, Calif., Long Beach, Calif., Los Angeles (1997 FIVB World Championships), Miami, New York (1998 Goodwill Games) and St. Petersburg, Fla.
The USA has hosted 26 FIVB events through Long Beach in August, including 13 men’s and 13 women’s tournaments. Host country USA has won 28 medals on its country’s sand, including 14 men’s and 14 women’s with four men’s gold medals and four women’s gold medals.
In the 13 FIVB men’s events through Long Beach in August, the USA has the most medals on its home sand with 14, Brazil is second in men’s medals with 12, followed by Argentina, Norway, Spain and Switzerland with two each and with one each men’s medal in USA events have been Canada, Italy, Netherlands and Poland..
In 13 FIVB women’s events in the USA through Long Beach in August, Brazil leads the medals race with 20 total followed by the United States with 14, Argentina with three, Germany with two and with one women’s medal in the USA is the Slovak Republic.
WELCOME TO FORT LAUDERDALE
Fort Lauderdale is a U.S. city in the state of Florida in the Southeastern part of the country. It is located on the Atlantic coast, 23 miles (37 km) north of Miami. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 165,521. It is a principal city of the South Florida metropolitan area, which was home to 5,564,635 people at the 2010 census.
The city is a popular tourist destination, with an average year-round temperature of 75.5 F (24.2 C), and 3,000 hours of sunshine per year. Greater Fort Lauderdale which takes in all of Broward County hosted 12 million visitors in 2012, including 2.8 million international visitors. The district has 561 hotels and motels comprising nearly 35,000 rooms. Forty six cruise ships sailed from Port Everglades in 2012. Greater Fort Lauderdale has over 4,000 restaurants, 63 golf courses, 12 shopping malls, 16 museums, 132 nightclubs, 278 parkland campsites, and 100 marinas housing 45,000 resident yachts.
TEAM USA
As the host nation for the Swatch FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Finals, the USA has two men’s teams in the field and two women’s teams. The men’s teams are No. 5 ranked Jake Gibb/Casey Patterson and No. 10 Host National Wild Card Phil Dalhausser/Nick Lucena.
As the host nation, USA’s two teams are Wild Card entries Emily Day/Jennifer Kessy and Lauren Fendrick/April Ross.
THE WORLD
The other eight men’s teams in the field for the event are Austria’s Clemens Doppler/Alexander Horst, Brazil’s Alison Cerutti/Bruno Oscar Schmidt, Brazil’s Evandro Goncalves/Pedro Solberg, Canada’s Ben Saxton/Chaim Schalk, Italy’s Daniele Lupo/Paolo Nicolai, Netherlands’ Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen, Netherlands’ Reinder Nummerdor/Christiaan Varenhorst and Spain’s Adrian Gavira/Pablo Herrera.
The other eight women’s teams in the lineup for Fort Lauderdale are Brazil’s Talita Antunes/Larissa Franca, Brazil’s Agatha Bednarczuk/Barbara Seixas, Canada’s Heather Bansley/Sarah Pavan, Canada’s Jamie Broder/Kristina Valjas, Germany’s Chantal Laboureur/Julia Sude, Germany’s Laura Ludwig/Kira Walkenhorst, Netherlands’ Madelein Meppelink/Marleen Van Iersel and Spain’s Elsa Baquerizo/Liliana Fernandez.
SWATCH FIVB WORLD TOUR FINALS PURSE SPLIT
The gold medal team in each gender at the $500,000 Swatch FIVB World Tour Finals will split and FIVB-record $100,000, the silver $60,000, the bronze $30,000 and fourth place $15,000. The balance of the purse, per gender, will have two fifth places receiving $20,000 per team, two seventh places earning $7,500 and two ninth places picking up $5,000 per team,
GROWING HISTORY
The FIVB Swatch FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Finals will be the 329th men’s event since the FIVB began men’s competition in 1987 and the 293rd FIVB women’s tournament since they started in 1992.
ON THE HORIZON
Next week after Fort Lauderdale, the 2016 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour with placement points counting in the FIVB Olympic Rankings for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games will begin at the double-gender $150,000 FIVB Puerto Vallarta Open (Oct. 5-11) in Mexico. The remaining two 2016 FIVB World Tour events on the 2015 portion of the schedule will be the double-gender $150,000 FIVB Antalya Open in Turkey (Oct. 20-25) and the final event in 2015 will be the men’s only $75,000 FIVB Doha Open in Qatar (Nov. 9-13).
FIVB WORLD TOUR PURSES
The FIVB Grand Slam and Swatch FIVB Major Series competitions, all double-gender each have $800,000 in total purses. The total purse FIVB World Championships the Netherlands 2015 was $1,000,000 and $500,000 total for the Swatch FIVB Beach VolleyballWorld Tour Finals which will feature the top eight teams and two wild card teams in each gender.
The 10 FIVB Open tournaments in 2015, eight double-gender, one men only and one women only, will have $150,000 total purses for the double gender events and $75,000 for the single-gender competitions.
FIVB WORLD TOUR BREAKDOWN
The 2015 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour schedule included five FIVB Grand Slams, the new Swatch FIVB Major Series of three events, seven FIVB Opens and the inaugural Swatch FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Finals in the United States. The showcase event was the $1 million 2015 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships in the Netherlands (June 26-July 5).
A total of 15 countries hosted events this year as the 2015 FIVB World Tour began the Olympic qualification process 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 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
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 will return as needed in 2015 to determine the final teams for the qualification tournament.
SWATCH FIVB BEACH VOLLEYBALL WORLD TOUR FINALS MATCH SCHEDULE
Tuesday, September 29
10:00, CC - Ludwig/Walkenhorst, Germany (No. 5-Seed) vs. Baquerizo/Liliana, Spain (8), Women, Pool A
10:00, SC - Agatha/Barbara, Brazil (4) vs. Broder/Valjas, Canada (9), Women, Pool A
11:00, CC - Gibb/Patterson, United States (1) vs. Lupo/Nicolai, Italy (9), Men, Pool A
11:00, SC - Brouwer/Meeuwsen, Netherlands (4) vs. Gavira/Herrera, Spain (8), Men, Pool A
12:00, CC - Bansley/Pavan, Canada (3) vs. Day/Kessy, United States (7), Women, Pool B
12:00, SC - Talita/Larissa, Brazil (2) vs. Laboureur/Sude, Germany (10), Women, Pool B
13:00, CC - Alison/Bruno, Brazil (2) vs. Doppler/Horst, Austria (6), Men, Pool B
14:00, CC - Fendrick/Ross, United States (1) vs. Broder/Valjas, Canada (9), Women, Pool A
15:00, CC - Dalhausser/Lucena, United States (10) vs. Saxton/Schalk, Canada (7), Men, Pool B
16:00, CC - Agatha/Barbara, Brazil (4) vs. Baquerizo/Liliana, Spain (8), Women, Pool A
Wednesday, September 30
10:00, CC - Talita/Larissa, Brazil (2) vs. Meppelink/Van Iersel, Netherlands (6), Women, Pool B
10:00, SC - Bansley/Pavan, Canada (3) vs. Laboureur/Sude, Germany (10), Women, Pool B
11:00, CC - Gibb/Patterson, United States (1) vs. Gavira/Herrera, Spain (8), Men, Pool A
11:00, SC - Doppler/Horst, Austria (6) vs. Saxton/Schalk, Canada (7), Men, Pool B
12:00, CC - Fendrick/Ross, United States (1) vs. Agatha/Barbara, Brazil (4), Women, Pool A
12:00, SC - Broder/Valjas, Canada (9) vs. Ludwig/Walkenhorst, Germany (5), Women, Pool A
13:00, CC - Lupo/Nicolai, Italy (9) vs. Evandro/Pedro Solberg, Brazil (5), Men, Pool A
14:00, CC - Laboureur/Sude, Germany (10) vs. Meppelink/Van Iersel, Netherlands (6), Women, Pool B
15:00, CC - Nummerdor/Varenhorst, Netherlands (3) vs. Dalhausser/Lucena, United States (10), Men, Pool B
16:00, CC - Talita/Larissa, Brazil (2) vs. Day/Kessy, United States (7), Women, Pool B
Thursday, October 1
10:00, CC - Lupo/Nicolai, Italy (9) vs. Gavira/Herrera, Spain (8), Men, Pool A
10:00, SC - Brouwer/Meeuwsen, Netherlands (4) vs. Evandro/Pedro Solberg, Brazil (5), Men, Pool A
11:00, CC - Laboureur/Sude, Germany (10) vs. Day/Kessy, United States (7), Women, Pool B
11:00, SC - Bansley/Pavan, Canada (3) vs. Meppelink/Van Iersel, Netherlands (6), Women, Pool B
12:00, CC - Dalhausser/Lucena, United States (10) vs. Doppler/Horst, Austria (6), Men, Pool B
12:00, SC - Alison/Bruno, Brazil (2) vs. Nummerdor/Varenhorst, Netherlands (3), Men, Pool B
13:00, CC - Broder/Valjas, Canada (9) vs. Baquerizo/Liliana, Spain (8), Women, Pool A
14:00, CC - Brouwer/Meeuwsen, Netherlands (4) vs. Lupo/Nicolai, Italy (9), Men, Pool A
15:00, CC - Fendrick/Ross, United States (1) vs. Ludwig/Walkenhorst, Germany (5), Women, Pool A
16:00, CC - Gibb/Patterson, United States (1) vs. Evandro/Pedro Solberg, Brazil (5), Men, Pool A
Friday, October 2
10:00, CC - Meppelink/Van Iersel, Netherlands (6) vs. Day/Kessy, United States (7), Women, Pool B
10:00, SC - Talita/Larissa, Brazil (2) vs. Bansley/Pavan, Canada (3), Women, Pool B
11:00, CC - Fendrick/Ross, United States (1) vs. Baquerizo/Liliana, Spain (8), Women, Pool A
11:00, SC - Agatha/Barbara, Brazil (4) vs. Ludwig/Walkenhorst, Germany (5), Women, Pool A
12:00, CC - Nummerdor/Varenhorst, Netherlands (3) vs. Doppler/Horst, Austria (6), Men, Pool B
12:00, SC - Alison/Bruno, Brazil (2) vs. Saxton/Schalk, Canada (7), Men, Pool B
13:00, CC - Gibb/Patterson, United States (1) vs. Brouwer/Meeuwsen, Netherlands (4), Men, Pool A
13:00, SC - Evandro/Pedro Solberg, Brazil (5) vs. Gavira/Herrera, Spain (8), Men, Pool A
14:00, CC - Women’s Quarterfinals
15:00, CC - Women’s Quarterfinals
16:00, CC - Alison/Bruno, Brazil (2) vs. Dalhausser/Lucena, United States (10), Men, Pool B
16:00, SC - Nummerdor/Varenhorst, Netherlands (3) vs. Saxton/Schalk, Canada (7), Men, Pool B
Saturday, October 3
9:00, CC - Men’s Quarterfinals
10:00, CC - Men’s Quarterfinals
11:00, CC - Women’s Semifinals
13:00, CC - Women’s Semifinals
14:30, CC - Men’s Semifinals
15:30, CC - Men’s Semifinals
Sunday, October 4
11:00, CC - Women’s Bronze Medal Match
12:00, CC - Men’s Bronze Medal Match
13:00 or 14:30, CC - Men’s Gold Medal Match
13:00 or 14:30, CC - Women’s Gold Medal Match