Todd Rogers Photo: Ed Chan

Sean Scott Photo: Ken Delgado

Scott Davenport Photo: AVP

Carl Henkel Photo: AVP

Combined with a Wednesday match win, Rogers (Santa Barbara, Calif.) and Scott (San Diego, Calif.) posted three Qualification Tournament victories to join Scott Davenport (Manhattan Beach, Calif.) and Carl Henkel (Redondo Beach, Calif.) as the two teams representing the United States in this weekend's international pro beach event.

Seeded second in the 77-team qualifier, Rogers and Scott advanced to the Main Draws with Thursday wins over 39th-seeded Richard Kogel and Sander Mulder of Netherlands (21-16 and 21-17 in 37 minutes) and 20th-seeded Marcel Gscheidle and Bernhard Vesti of Switzerland (21-14 and 21-16 in 38 minutes). Rogers and Scott eliminated 77th-seeded Bob Van Looy and Yves Verstraelen of Belgium 21-7 and 21-15 in their only match Wednesday.

Rogers and Scott have placed fifth and seventh in the first two Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP) Tour events in Southern California at Huntington Beach and Hermosa Beach, respectively. Rogers placed ninth in the 2001 FIVB Berlin stop with Dax Holdren, who is playing this season with Eric Fonoimoana. Rogers and Scott finished ninth last season in Vitoria, Brazil, in their only international event together.

John Hyden (Los Angeles, Calif.) and Christian McCaw (Santa Monica, Calif.) lost their opening match Thursday and failed to qualify for the Main Draw event for the United States. The pair placed 41st after dropping a 15-21, 22-20 and 15-13 in 48 minutes to 55th-seeded Roman Arkaev and Pavel Karpukhin of Russia. Hyden and McCaw scored a 21-8 and 21-15 win over 67th-seeded James Woods Merren and Manu Wilmoth Collins of Honduras to advance to a Thursday morning matches.

A pair of indoor Olympians for the United States at the Sydney 2000 Games, Hyden and McCaw placed 33rd and 17th in the first two AVP Tour stops this season. McCaw, who had to also qualify for the 2001 Berlin stop, placed 13th with Rob Heidger on the Alexanderplatz sand. McCaw and Heidger, who is sitting out the 2002 season, placed fourth in the 2001 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships in Klagenfurt, Austria. Hyden was playing in only his fifth pro beach event and his first internationally.

The United States had already placed one team in the Main Draw as Carl Henkel (Redondo Beach, Calif.) returns to Berlin for the seventh-time with Scott Davenport (Manhattan Beach, Calif.), who replaced the injured Dain Blanton (stomach muscle pull). Henkel, who has played in every Berlin men's event, placed 13th at the Alexanderplatz last season with Sinjin Smith, who has retired.

Competing in his 91st FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour event, Henkel and Kevin Wong were fifth at the Berlin event in 1998. Jeff Williams and Carlos Briceno posted the best finish by an USA tandem in Berlin with a fourth in the inaugural Alexanderplatz event in 1995. Only Smith has played in more FIVB events (105) for the United States than Henkel.

Henkel placed 13th in the first AVP event this season at Huntington Beach before missing last weekend's Hermosa Beach event due to Blanton's injury. Davenport, who placed 17th (Ian Clark) and 13th (Eli Fairfield) in the season opening AVP stops, is playing in his first "open" FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour event. He placed seventh with Collin Smith at the 1999 Pan American Games in Winnipeg, Canada.

This is the eighth time that the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour has stopped in Berlin. Six of the previous Berlin stops have featured men's play with the United States' Misty May and Holly McPeak winning the only women's event in 2000. "A couple of years ago nobody expected such a development of the exotic sport beach volleyball in Germany. Last year, we had 32,000 spectators and we are sure that this will be topped this year," said Frank Mackerodt from the local organizing committee.

The men's FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour will feature 11 tournaments, including two Grand Prix stops in Marseille, France and Klagenfurt. Both sites have hosted FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships with Marseille staging the worlds in 1999. The 2003 World Championships will be held at the fabulous Copa Cabana Beach in Brazil.

The favorites for the Berlin event include Julian Prosser and Lee Zahner of Australia, who won the 2001 Berlin event. The Laciga brothers (Martin and Paul) of Switzerland have placed second in both 1999 and 2001. Brazilians Emanuel Rego and Tande Ramos, the FIVB's top ranked players in 2001, and FIVB World Champions Mariano Baracetti and Martin Conde are also favorites to advance to Sunday's final rounds.

The FIVB men's season opener will also feature a "new" format with the 32 teams in the Main Draw competing initially in eight pools of four teams each. The top two teams from each of eight pools then advance to the 16-team single-elimination bracket.

The FIVB launched its women's pro beach volleyball tour last week in Madrid, Spain. May (Costa Mesa, Calif.) and Kerri Walsh (Saratoga, Calif.) of the United States captured the women's opener by defeating three Brazilian teams enroute to the $22,500 Gold Medal finish.

May and Walsh, who dropped their first pool play match June 7 to Ana Paula Connelly and Tatiana Minello of Brazil, rebounded with six-straight wins to split the $22,500 first-place prize in the $150,000 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour event.

Competing for the first-time together since last September when May was sidelined with injuries to end her 2001 season, the Americans avenged their opening loss to the Brazilians to defeat Ana Paula and Minello for the Gold Medal with a 23-21 and 21-14 title win in 35 minutes.

With the international season starting, the AVP Tour will stage its third event of the season this weekend on East Beach in Santa Barbara, Calif. McPeak (Manhattan Beach, Calif.) and Elaine Youngs (Durango, Colo.) will be seeking their third-straight win this season after capturing the Huntington Beach and Hermosa Beach stops.

Young will be chasing her fourth-straight AVP women's title as she ended the 2001 season by winning the Manhattan Beach stop with Barbra Fontana. McPeak and Youngs have defeated Dianne DeNecochea and Fontana in both title matches this season.

The first two AVP men's stops this season has featured different winners. Fonoimoana and Holdren won the Huntington event by defeating Canyon Ceman and Mike Whitmarsh in the final. Albert Hannemann and Jeff Nygaard captured the Hermosa stop by defeating Stein Metzger and Kevin Wong in the title match.

After this weekend, the AVP takes a week off with the FIVB hosting its first combined men's and women's event in Gstaad, Switzerland June 18-23. Metzger and Wong won the 2001 Gstaad stop while May and Walsh placed third in the women's competition.

FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour
June 12-16, 2002 at the Alexanderplatz, Berling, Germany
June 13 USA Men's Qualification Tournament Schedule

Second-round (losers eliminated, place 41st)
o Todd Rogers/Sean Scott, United States (No. 2-seeded Qualification Tournament team) def. Richard Kogel/Sander Mulder, Netherlands (39), 21-16 and 21-17 (37 minutes);
o Roman Arkaev/Pavel Karpukhin, Russia (55) def. John Hyden/Christian McCaw, United States (13), 15-21, 22-20 and 15-13 (48).

Third-round (winners advance to Main Draw, losers eliminated, place 33rd)
o Rogers/Scott, United States (2) def. Marcel Gscheidle/Bernhard Vesti, Switzerland (20), 21-14 and 21-16 (38);
o Maurizio Pimponi/ Andrea Raffaelli, Italy (12) def. Mykola Babich/Dmytro Khudoley, Ukraine (31), 21-19 and 21-18 (39);
o Jose Pedrosa/Jose Teixeira, Portugal (8) def. Arkaev/Karpukhin, Russia (55), 21-17 and 21-16 (30);
o Dietmar Maderböck/Oliver Stamm, Austria (3) def. Flaco Razo/Flago Rodriguez, Mexico (63), 23-21 and 24-22 (49);
o Nikolas Berger/Clemens Doppler, Austria (4) def. Thomas Hikel/Marrin Polte, Germany (64), 21-13 and 21-18 (36);
o Eugio Amore/Ricardo Lione, Italy (7) def. Julius Brink/Kjell Schneider, Germany (24), 29-27 and 21-16 (48);
o Max Backer/Gijis Ronnes, Netherlands (29) def. Roger Jonsson/Mikael Oestberg, Sweden (30), 19-21, 21-11 and 15-10 (48);
o Francisco Alvarez/Juan Rosell, Cuba (61) def. Ivaylo Gavrilov/Vladislav Todorov, Bulgaria (42), 21-16 and 21-15 (38).

Main Draw Entries (Qualification Tournament seed)

o Mariano Baracetti/Martin Conde, Argentina
o Julien Prosser/Lee Zahner. Australia
o Jarrod Novosel/Joshua Slack, Australia
o Tande Ramos/Emanuel Rego, Brazil
o Jose Loiola/Ricardo Santos, Brazil
o Roberto Lopes/Franco Neto, Brazil
o John Child/Mark Heese, Canada
o Jody Holden/Conrad Leinemann, Canada
o Javier Bosma/Antonio Cotrino, Spain
o Stephane Canet/Mathieu Hamel, France
o Jörg Ahmann/Axel Hager, Germany
o Christoph Diekmann/Andreas Scheurerpflug, Germany (Oliver Oetke out)
o Markus Dieckmann/Jonas Reckermann, Germany
o David Klemperer/Niklas Rademacher, Germany
o Pavlos Beligratis/Thanasis Michalopoulos, Greece
o Jorre Kjemperud/Vegard Hoidalen, Norway
o João Brenha/Luis Maia, Portugal
o Sergey Ermishin/Mikhail Kouchnerev, Russia
o Dmitry Karasev/Pavel Zaitsev, Russia
o Martin Laciga/Paul Laciga, Switzerland
o Markus Egger/Sascha Heyer, Switzerland
o Patrick Heuscher/Stefan Kobel, Switzerland
o Bjorn Berg/Simon Dahl, Sweden
o Scott Davenport/Carl Henkel, United States
o Rogers/Scott, United States (2)
o Maurizio Pimponi/ Andrea Raffaelli, Italy (12);
o Jose Pedrosa/Jose Teixeira, Portugal (8)
o Dietmar Maderböck/Oliver Stamm, Austria (3)
o Nikolas Berger/Clemens Doppler, Austria (4)
o Eugio Amore/Ricardo Lione, Italy (7)
o Max Backer/Bram or Gijis Ronnes, Netherlands (29)
o Francisco Alvarez/Juan Rosell, Cuba (61)

~ Tim Simmons