Lausanne, Switzerland, July 29, 2015 - The entries for the third annual ASICS World Series of Beach Volleyball in the United States have been finalized with 137 teams from 34 countries signing up for the US$800,000 FIVB World Tour event to be played August 17-23 in southern California.For the third-straight season, the FIVB World Tour returns to Long Beach as the competition on the TrueCar Court at Alamitos Beach becomes the site to host the most international Beach Volleyball events in the United States since the start of officially-sanctioned events for men in 1987 and 1992 for women.Country quota matches for both men and women will open play August 17 followed by qualifying action the next day where eight teams from both genders advance to the Main Draw. Twenty-four (24) men and 24 women teams have already been placed in the “money” rounds where the winning teams will each share the $57,000 first-place prizes.Main Draw play starts August 19 and will feature pool play for the 32 teams in each gender’s tournament with the top three group finishers advancing to the elimination rounds. Pool winners are guaranteed a first-round “bye” in the knockout rounds when the 24-team elimination bracket begins August 21. The medal matches will be played August 23.The ASICS World Series of Beach Volleyball is the second of two events in the United States this season that are part of the qualifying process for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. The first 2015 American Olympic qualifier was held in mid-June at St. Petersburg, Fla. Prior to the St. Petersburg Grand Slam, the last Olympic Beach Volleyball qualifying event in the United States was staged in September 2003 at Carson, Calif.Headlining the men’s and women’s entries for the ASICS World Series of Beach Volleyball are FIVB World Tour leaders Alison Cerutti/Bruno Oscar Schmidt and Agatha Bednarczuk/Barbara Seixas. Both Brazilian pairs have each won three international events this season, including the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships last month in The Hague.While the men’s ASICS World Series of Beach Volleyball looking to crown a new champion after Americans Phil Dalhausser and Sean Rosenthal ended their partnership earlier this week, April Ross and Kerri Walsh Jennings of the United States are scheduled to defend their Long Beach title after defeating Agatha and Barbara for the 2014 crown on the TrueCar Center Court at Alamitos Beach.Dalhausser, who missed five-straight events this season due to an oblique injury, will be playing with Nick Lucena in the 2015 ASICS World Series of Beach Volleyball as the American received a Main Draw “wild card” along with Mexico’s Lombardo Ontiveros and Juan Virgen, who captured the gold medal earlier this month at the PanAmerican Games in Toronto.Rosenthal will play in the Long Beach qualifier with Theo Brunner, who placed fourth at the 2015 world championships with Lucena after the pair netted a bronze medal two weeks earlier in St. Petersburg. Rosenthal and Dalhausser, who also teamed to win the 2013 Long Beach FIVB World Tour event along with four other international tournaments together, played in only two events this season with a 25th at the Russian Grand Slam at the end of May and ninth last week in Japanese Grand Slam in Yokohama.Ross and Walsh Jennings have played in only four of the 10 women’s FIVB World Tour events this season. The pair placed third in the season-opening event in China before placing 17th in Moscow when Walsh Jennings dislocated her right shoulder for the first time in 2015. After placing ninth at the world championships in The Netherlands, the pair advanced to the semi-finals in the Swiss Grand Slam where Walsh Jennings dislocated the right shoulder again in a quarter-final win over Agatha and Barbara and could not compete in the “final four” matches in Gstaad.With Walsh Jennings sidelined, Ross competed in the St. Petersburg and Yokohama Grand Slams with different partners. In Japan, Ross and Jennifer Fopma placed fourth where the Americans dropped a three-set semi-final match to eventual Yokohama gold medal winners Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst of Germany. Fopma will team with Brittany Hochevar in the ASICS World Series of Beach Volleyball as the pair earned a Main Draw “wild card” along with Carolina Horta and Liliane Maestrini of Brazil.Following the ASICS World Series of Beach Volleyball, the final Grand Slam event on the 2015 FIVB World Tour will be played August 25-30 in Olsztyn, Poland. The “test” event for the Rio 2016 Olympics will be staged on September 2-6 at exactly the same location for the Summer Games’ Beach Volleyball competition on Copacabana Beach.Prior to returning to the United States for the SWATCH FIVB World Tour Finals in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (September 29-October 4), the international circuit will stage “open” tournaments in Russia (Sochi, September 8-13) and China (Xiamen, September 22-27).ASICS World Series of Beach Volleyball Main Draw Entries
Men’s Main Draw Entries, Country• Isaac Kapa/Christopher McHugh, Australia
• Clemens Doppler/Alexander Horst, Austria
• Alison Cerutti/Bruno Oscar Schmidt, Brazil
• Evandro Gonçalves/Pedro Solberg, Brazil
• Emanuel Rego/Ricardo Santos, Brazil
• Chaim Schalk/Ben Saxton, Canada
• Josh Binstock/Sam Schachter, Canada
• Esteban Grimalt/Marco Grimalt, Chile
• Youssef Krou/Edouard Rowlandson, France
• Jonathan Erdmann/Kay Matysik, Germany
• Alexander Walkenhorst/Stefan Windscheif, Germany
• Paolo Nicolai/Daniele Lupo, Italy
• Matteo Ingrosso/Paolo Ingrosso, Italy
• Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Janis Smedins, Latvia
• Juan Virgen/Lombardo Ontiveros, Mexico
• Reinder Nummerdor/Christiaan Varenhorst, The Netherlands
• Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen, The Netherlands
• Grzegorz Fijalek/Mariusz Prudel, Poland
• Michal Kadziola/Jakub Szalankiewicz, Poland
• Konstantin Semenov/Viacheslav Krasilnikov, Russia
• Pablo Herrera/Adrián Gavira, Spain
• Jacob Gibb/Casey Patterson, United States
• John Hyden/Tri Bourne, United States
• Nicholas Lucena/Philip Dalhausser, United StatesWomen’s Main Draw Entries, Country• Louise Bawden/Taliqua Clancy, Australia
• Agatha Bednarczuk/Barbara Seixas, Brazil
• Larissa França/Talita Antunes, Brazil
• Juliana Felisberta/Maria Antonelli, Brazil
• Liliane Maestrini/Carolina Horta, Brazil
• Heather Bansley/Sarah Pavan, Canada
• Kristina Valjas/Jamie Lynn Broder, Canada
• Fan Wang/Yuan Yue, China
• Kristyna Kolocova/Marketa Slukova, Czech Republic
• Laura Ludwig/Kira Walkenhorst, Germany
• Karla Borger/Britta Büthe, Germany
• Katrin Holtwick/Ilka Semmler, Germany
• Marta Menegatti/Viktoria Orsi Toth, Italy
• Madelein Meppelink/Marleen Van Iersel, The Netherlands
• Kinga Kolosinska/Monika Brzostek, Poland
• Ekaterina Birlova/Evgenia Ukolova, Russia
• Nadine Zumkehr/Joana Heidrich, Switzerland
• Natalia Dubovcova/Dominika Nestarcova, Slovak Republic
• Liliana Fernández/Elsa Baquerizo, Spain
• April Ross/Kerri Walsh, United States
• Lauren Fendrick/Brooke Sweat, United States
• Jennifer Kessy/Emily Day, United States
• Jennifer Fopma/Brittany Hochevar, United States
• Miller Pata/Linline Matauatu, VanuatuUSA Teams in Qualifier
• Men's - Sean Rosenthal/Theodore Brunner
• Men's - John Mayer/Ryan Doherty
• Men's - Stafford Slick/Todd Rogers
• Women’s - Lane Carico/Summer Ross
• Women’s - Sara Hughes/Kelly Claes