Americans Todd Rogers and Phill Dalhausser (2) came back through the losers bracket to avenge an earlier defeat to Sean Rosenthal and Jake Gibb (18), beating them, 2-1 (21-18, 14-21, 15-11), for the FIVB Adelaide bronze medal.

It will be the US teams of Gibb-Rosenthal vs. Rogers-Dalhausser playing for the bronze medal at the FIVB Adelaide Open, after Gibb & Rosy (18) lost in two games, 19-21, 15-21, to the unusually strong Chinese team of Wu-Xu (7).

The Chinese will face Brazilians Harley-Pedro (4) in the final tomorrow at 8PM PST (1:30 CDT).

Photo: FIVB

The US team of Branagh-Youngs was destroyed 17-21, 14-21 by the top-seeded Brazilian team of Juliana-Larissa. The Americans will play tomorrow for the bronze medal.

The US team of Rogers-Dalhausser (2) were beaten by the Brazilian team of Harley-Pedro (4) in a drawn-out, back-and-forth match that lasted 1:09, losing 1-2 (19-21, 21-16, 13-15).

Todd and Phil will play tomorrow for the third place medal against the winners of the US-China match, to be decided later today.

Nicole Branagh and Elaine Youngs (4) worked their way into the final four of the FIVB Adelaide tournament. They'll face the top seed, Brazilian one-name wonders Juliana & Larissa, in their next semifinal match at 8:45PM PST (2:15PM CDT). Photo: FIVB

Only four teams remain in the Adelaide tournament, including two American teams, Gibb-Rosenthal and Rogers-Dalhausser. This guarantees that the US will score at least a bronze medal in the first international tournament of 2008, and also introduces the possibility of an all-US final. Photo: FIVB

Matt Fuerbringer and Casey Jennings (27) have finished the FIVB Adelaide tournament in 7th place after being offed today by the Chinese team of Xu-Wu (7), losing in an apparent barn-burner 2-0 (27-25, 21-19).

Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser handily beat the Dutch 17th seed to advance.

Gibb-Rosenthal will play their first match of the day at 10:30PM PST (16:00 CDT).

Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal continue to charge through the winner's bracket, squeezing out a win over the German 14th seed in three games.

The American teams of Rogers-Dalhausser (2) and Fuerbringer-Jennings (27) are also cruising with wins in the contenders bracket. Fuerbs and Casey eked out a giant win over the top-seeded Russians, Barsouk-Kolodinsky, to send them packing.

Metzger-Williams bowed out with a loss to top Chinese team Xu-Wu (7).

For the women, Wacholder-Turner lost to a strong Aussie team, while Branagh-Youngs survive into the semi-finals in the contenders bracket.

Photo: FIVB

It's no big secret that beach volleyball involves hot athletes in bathing suits running around on a beach. I've always tried to stay focused on the athletics, though, you know, because I was raised to respect girls for more than just their bodies, n' stuff like that.

Still, sex sells. With that, I give you my first collection of beach volleyball hotties from the Adelaide photo gallery. (And if any girls among my thousands of readers want to blog for me and post photos of hot guys, that's fine. Hit me up - chewthefat at fatspike.com).

Hotties

Juliana & Larissa of Brazil


Juliana


Larissa




Renata & Talita of Brazil


Canadians Annie Martin and Dana Cooke


American Rachel Wacholder


Canadians Marie-Andree Lessard and Sarah Maxwell


Australian Tamsin Barnett (right) congratulates partner Natalie Cook


Aussies Eileen Romanowski (left) and Summer Lochowicz



Greece's Maria Tsiartsiani



Australian Natalie Frostick


Aussies Eliza Dean and Katie Bartoli





Sarah Battaglene of Australia



Say, what's up with the body suits?
Girls are always cold.








On way to stay warm is to not shave excess body hair


Photos: FIVB

Two US women's teams in the FIVB Adelaide Open are struggling to hang on. Both teams, Nicole Branagh & Elaine Youngs (4), and Tyra Turner & Rachel Wacholder (14), are playing in the contenders bracket in the quarter-finals.

The US team of Boss-Ross (7), who scored a FIVB gold medal in 2007, lost to a virtually unknown Australian qualifier to be eliminated from the tournament, giving them a finish of 17th.

Photo: FIVB

Adelaide is the fifth-largest city in Australia, with a population of over 1.1 million in 2006, and is the capital and most populous city of the state of South Australia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adelaide


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The US team of Gibb-Rosenthal (18) won another upset victory over the 7th-seeded Chinese team, while Matt Fuerbringer and Casey Jennings (27) lost to the 14th-seed German team. Gibb-Rosy have one remaining 4th round match, but are now guaranteed a spot in tomorrow's semis.

Casey and Furbs will have a tough match today to stay in the Adelaide tournament, playing either the 1st-seeded Russians or 10th-seeded Brazilian team.

Rogers-Dalhausser (2) easily defeated their Japanese opponents in the contenders bracket and will now face the strong Swiss team of Heyer-Heuscher (12).

Mark Williams & Stein Metzger (28) pulled out a huge win over Schacht-Slack of Austria (6), winning in three games, 2-1 (21-18, 19-21, 17-15) in 1:05. This is a big win for the new pair. Their next match is against a 20th-seeded Chinese team.

Two of four American teams have now made it to the quarter-finals at Adelaide.

Photo: FIVB

Todd and Phil easily defeated a Georgian team, 2-0 (21-15, 21-15), to move on to the 4th round of the FIVB Adelaide Open. The #2 seed will next face the Japanese team of Asahi-Shiratori, seeded #25.

Gibb-Rosenthal and Fuerbringer-Jennings, both still in the winners bracket, both face battles against higher-seeded Chinese and German teams, respectively. Both matches begin today at 4:10PM PST (3/28 at 9:40 AM CDT, which is a weird-ass time zone).

Finally, the American team of Williams-Metzger - also playing in the contenders bracket - are facing a very strong Austrian team of Schact-Slack today. Not sure why Lambert-Metzger aren't playing together in this tourney, but without a few big FIVB wins, their chances for Beijing '08 are all but sunk.

Photo: FIVB

In the first clash of 2008 between two top US men's teams, it was Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal who emerged victorious over 2007 AVP champs, Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser, winning 2-0 (24-22, 21-18) in FIVB competition in Adelaide, Australia. This was only a second round match, however, and the champs are still in the competition, albeit now playing in the contenders bracket.

Gibb and Rosy played unevenly in 2007, finishing the season 3rd and a distant 1494 points behind Todd and Phil. In international play, Gibb-Rosy rank even farther behind, though they're currently second in the running for the two American berths in the Beijing '08 Olympics.

From: "Brandon Thomsen" 
To: "Jason Schock" 
Subject: RE: Question regarding new site & forums
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2008 17:58:46 -0700

Jason,

We're doing edits on the site and it should be back up
again in a few weeks.

Thanks,

Brandon Thomsen

Marketing Manager
AVP - Pro Beach Volleyball

________________________________

From: jason at jasonschock.com
Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2008 4:32 PM
To: Brandon Thomsen
Subject: Question regarding new site & forums


Hi, this is Jason with FatSpike.com. A couple people were
asking me what happened to the AVP Forums now that the site
has been revamped.

Any info you can give on this? Are they gone? Will they be
back?


Thanks!


Jason

Santa Barbara local Ken Delgado has some super secret stealth photos of a practice session between Todd Rogers, Phil Dalhausser, Dax Holdren and Will Strickland at East Beach.

As a commenter on this blog noted, the popular AVP Forums have vanished now that the AVP has renovated its Web site.

Inquiries have been made. Until I get a response, does anyone know what the deal is?

The 2008 AVP schedule is as follows:

• April 11-13 – Miami, Fla.
• April 18-20 – Dallas, Tex.
• May 2-4 – Huntington Beach, Calif.
• May 8-10 – Charleston, SC
• May 24-26 – Louisville, Ky.
• May 30-June 1 – Atlanta, Ga.
• June 6-8 – Hermosa Beach, Calif.
• June 20-22 – Belmar, NJ
• July 4-6 – Boulder, Colo.
• TBA – Chicago, Ill.
• July 18-20 – Brooklyn, NY
• July 25-27 – Long Beach, Calif.
• Aug. 1-3 – San Diego, Calif.
• Aug. 29-31 – Cincinnati, Ohio
• Sept. 6-7 – Santa Barbara, Calif.
• Sept. 12-14 – San Francisco, Calif.
• Sept. 19-21 – Manhattan Beach, Calif.
• Sept. 26-28 – Glendale, Ariz.