Sunday, February 5th, 2012
Rogers and Dalhausser are looking to make (more) history, Kerri Walsh is back on the sand, there is some interesting partner swapping going on. 
Let’s address all of these one at a time:
If Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser pull off a win in Hermosa this weekend, it will be their fifth consecutive title there, a thus far unaccomplished feat. They’ll also be looking to pass Mike Dodd and Tim Hovland and move into sole possession of the third most wins ever by a men’s team by earning win number 54.
With the dynamic duo coming off another spectacular FIVB win, this time in Gstaad, Switzerland, I’m betting that they can make it happen.
You read that right, ladies and gentlemen, Kerri Walsh will be gracing the sand of Hermosa Beach with her mad skills this weekend. She won’t be rejoining Misty, in fact she won’t be playing double at all. Instead she’ll be participating in a 4′s tournament.
That’s right, I said 4′s. Nike and Gabrielle Reece have apparently teamed up to make this happen — it’ll just be four teams, but they’ll all be lead by legends of the game. Gabby’s taking a team, and Leanne McSorley, Nancy Reynolds and Lisa Zimmerman will take the other three.
The four teams will compete in best of three matches on Sunday, followed by a semifinal and final. There will be a similar min-tournament in Long Beach.
So it’s not a tear-filled, butt-kicking reunion of Misty and Kerri, but I’ll take what I can get.
There have been quite a few partner switches happening in the past couple of weeks, but the most drama-filled is probably the breakup of Lisa Rutledge and Brooke Hanson and Lauren Fendrick and Ashley Ivy.
To make things a bit more juicy, the two teams have simply swapped partners. And if they both win their first matches on Saturday they’ll be playing against one another. Awkward.
For all the details about recent partner shake ups, check out Hans Stolfus’ Hot Stove.
I’ll be back on Monday with a recap of the action for the weekend as usual. You can also watch a lot of the action streaming live on AVP.com.
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Tags: association of volleyball professionals, AVP, beach volleyball, kerri walsh, mens beach volleyball, phil dalhausser, todd rogers, womens beach volleyball
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Beach Cities Dude, Andrea Fryrear. Andrea Fryrear said: Walsh is back on the sand (although not like I want), Phil and Todd look to make (more) history http://ow.ly/2cHxA #volleyball #avp [...]