B.J. Hoeptner Evans
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Aug. 27, 2011) – The U.S. women’s beach volleyball team of Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh will play Brazil’s Juliana Felisberta and Larissa Franca for the 20th time in Sunday’s final at the HP Beach Open in The Hague.

Meanwhile, two other U.S. beach teams finished the 2011 FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour tournament on Saturday.

May-Treanor (Santa Monica, Calif.) and Walsh (San Jose, Calif.), seeded third, lead in victories against the top-ranked Felisberta and Franca, 12-7. But the Brazilians lost the last match between the two teams one week ago in Aland.

May-Treanor and Walsh started Saturday with a fourth-round loss to China’s second-ranked Chen Xue and Xi Zhang, 21-19 22-20 in 34 minutes. May-Treanor and Walsh also lost to the Chinese team in the gold medal match in Aland last week. Weather played a factor as rain and wind made things unpredictable.

May-Treanor and Walsh moved to the consolation bracket where they had to play compatriots Jennifer Kessy (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) and April Ross (Costa Mesa, Calif.), ranked eighth. May-Treanor and Walsh came out on top, 29-27, 21-19 in 45 minutes.

Kessy and Ross advanced to the match with a 21-16, 19-21, 15-12 victory over Czech Republic’s 16th-ranked Hana Klapalova and Lenka Hajeckova in 52 minutes. The U.S. team finished the tournament tied for fifth.

In the semifinals, May-Treanor and Walsh defeated Brazil’s fourth-ranked Talita Antunes and Maria Antonelli, 21-14, 19-21, 15-10 in 44 minutes.

“We were smart in placement,” Walsh said. “In these windy conditions, you have to use finesse.”

Walsh added that she and Misty were a bit off in the morning.

“We were not together, a bit separate. Later on we were more a team and our mindset was more aggressive.”

The winners of Sunday’s women’s final will share $30,000.

In the men’s bracket, the 10th-ranked U.S. team of Jake Gibb (Bountiful, Utah) and Sean Rosenthal (Redondo Beach, Calif.) lost their Saturday consolation match to Netherlands’ 26th-seeded Emiel Boersma and Daan Spijkers, 18-21, 21-19, 13-15 in 1 hour, 2 minutes. The U.S. team finished tied for seventh.

For more information about the tournament, click here.

COBRA SPORTS