A Good First Day Of Pool For Team USA In Fort Lauderdale

The biggest story of the first day of pool play at the FIVB Fort Lauderdale Major beach volleyball tournament was the upset of Olympic gold medalists Bruno Oscar Schmidt and Alison Cerutti by the new American partnership of Casey Patterson and Theo Brunner.

Brunner and Patterson defeated the Brazilians in straight sets 21-14, 22-20 on Wednesday, and Brunner collected an incredible nine blocks.

The new pair went on to face Germans Markus Bockermann and Lars Fluggen, winning in a three-set battle to go 2-0 on day one.

Patterson’s former partner Jake Gibb and his new teammate Taylor Crabb also have two wins under their belts after the first day of pool, taking down Italians Alex Ranghieri and Marco Caminati and Maciej Rudol and Jakub Szalankiewicz of Poalnd.



Taylor Crabb’s older brother, Trevor Crabb, and Sean Rosenthal, who entered the main draw through the qualifier, went 1-1, getting a big win over Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Janis Smedins of Lativa and losing to Russians Viacheslav Krasilnikov and Nikita Liamin, who made it all the way to the bronze medal match in Rio.

John Hyden and Ryan Doherty lost their first match to Brazilians Saymon Barbosa and Alvaro Filho, but redeemed themselves with a three-set victory over Christoph Dressler and Thomas Kunert of Austria.

Top U.S. men's team and one of the only partnerships to stay together after the 2016 season, Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena went 2-0 on the first day of pool, defeating Harley Marques and Ricardo Santos of Brazil and Clemens Doppler and Alexander Horst of Austria.

On the women’s side, Kerri Walsh Jennings and April Ross did not disappoint, defeating Manon Nummerdor-Flier and Marleen Van Iersel of the Netherlands under the lights on stadium court.



New pair Brooke Sweat and Summer Ross won two, beating Kristina May and Taylor Pischke of Canada and Sandra Ittlinger and Teresa Mersmann of Germany.

Emily Day and Brittany Hochevar had the misfortune to kick their Fort Lauderdale showing off versus Olympic silver medalist Agatha Bednarczuk of Brazil and her new partner Eduarda Lisboa, suffering a loss in straight sets.

Lauren Fendrick and Sara Hughes looked solid in their only match on Wednesday, securing a win over Louise Bawden and Nicole Laird of Australia.

Kelly Claes and Kelly Reeves lost to Chantal Laboureur and Julia Sude of Germany, and Lane Carico and Irene Hester-Pollock fell to Swiss Olympians Joana Heidrich and Anouk Verge-Depre.

Lots more volleyball to come Thursday. Make sure to stay tuned each day for a recap of what you missed.