Volleyball Stars Play in CBVA Tourney

When beach volleyball player Will Montgomery was walking toward the sand on Saturday to play in the CBVA Manhattan Beach men’s open, he wondered who would be the second seed behind his team, that is until he looked at the board and saw two of the sport's biggest names paired together.

Sean Rosenthal, 2008 Olympian, and Casey Jennings, one of the winningest players on the now defunct AVP tour, joined forces on Saturday and were poised to win it all but were forced to leave early because Jenning’s wife, 2008 gold medalist and the face of women’s beach volleyball Kerri Walsh, had to catch a flight to Europe to play in an international event.

“I looked up at the board [when he arrived in the morning] and was like 'Awesome!,'” Montgomery said. “You never know who is going to show up here. That’s why I come to Manhattan Beach to play, because it brings out the best talent in the world. I just wish we could have had the chance to get our butt kicked by them.”

Montgomery and his partner Brazilian Edson Felipe Hoffman De Barros won the tournament, with the rays of sun almost gone, when the team of Kevin Gregan and Matt Davis, Manhattan Beach residents, were unable to play in the final because of severe cramping to Davis.

“It was an extremely long day and we were by far the oldest competitors,” said Gregan, who is 38 years old. Davis is 37. “Unfortunately age caught up to us in the final but I don’t think we have anything to hang our head about because we played well and competed really hard.”

Montgomery, who is a junior at UC Irvine and the starting libero for the Anteaters, gave special credit to former AVP legend Jose Loiola, who brought him together with his Brazilian partner for the tournament and acted as their coach.

“He’s awesome,” Montgomery said. “He knows so much about the sport and is so willing to help and share his knowledge of the game. He is just wonderful to have around, and to be able to soak up some of his knowledge is incredible.”

The tournament featured 19 men's teams and 17 women's teams that competed in pool play, with the top two teams from each pool advancing to bracket play. The matches were best two-out-of-three games with the men going to 21 in the first two games and 15 in the third, while the women played one game to 28 to determine the winner.

Both men’s teams had to endure more than ten hours of competition, including three-game semifinal matches to make it to the final.

“It was hot out there, the sand was hot and there was some tough competition,” Davis said. “I thought we battled hard all day. Unfortunately all that wear and tear caught up with me at the end.”

On the women’s side, former USC star and Manhattan Beach resident Jess Gysin teamed with another Manhattan Beach resident and former Big Ten freshman of the year Erin Gray to win the title, 28-23, over the team of Alicia Zamparelli and Meri-De Boyer.

“This isn’t my usual partner,” said Gysin, who will compete with her usual partner Christal Engle at the Jose Cuervo Manhattan Beach Open, “so it feels great to get a win with someone I’m not real familiar with but who played great today.”

Gysin, who Rosenthal's girlfriend, wanted to play in a coed tournament with him and thought that if they opened up that division they would be tough to stop.

“We were asking Jay [Saikley, tournament director] the night before the tournament if they would have a coed division,” Gysin said of playing with her boyfriend in the future. “Unfortunately they didn’t have one at this tournament but hopefully in the future they will because I would love to play with him.”

Look for Gysin and Engel, who was a four-time All-American at the University of Washington, to make big waves at the upcoming 2011 Jose Cuervo Manhattan Beach Open August 25-28.