FOUR-TEAMS QUALIFY FOR THE PAUL MITCHELL OPEN MAIN DRAW;
TOP AVP TEAMS BEGIN PLAY SATURDAY AT VIRGINIA BEACH'S SIXTH AVENUE BEACH
VIRGINIA BEACH, VA. - Top-seeded Mike Daniel and Jacob Gibb finally earned a
Main Draw berth this season in an Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP)
Pro Beach Volleyball Tour event here Friday (July 27) by winning both of their
Qualification Tournament matches on the opening day of The Paul Mitchell Open
at Virginia Beach.After failing to advance to the Main Draw in their previous three AVP
qualifiers in Huntington Beach, Calif., Muskegon, Mich., and Belmar, N. J.,
Daniel (Pleasant Grove, Utah) and Gibb (Salt Lake City, Utah) advanced to
Saturday's opening Main Draw rounds with an 18-21, 21-17 and 15-12 win over
eighth-seeded Andre Melo and Jason Wight."What a relief," said Daniel after the match.  "We have been disappointed withourselves the past three events.  It is tough to travel a long distance and get eliminated before the money rounds.  We are finding out that there are a lot of good beach volleyball players in these qualifiers.  You can't take a local team
for granted."Also qualifying for Saturday's opening Main Draw rounds are third-seeded Chris Kosty (Fountain Valley, Calif.)/Ed Ratledge (Fountain Valley, Calif.), the
fifth-seeded DiPierro brothers (David and Michael of Pompano Beach, Fla.) and
10th-seeded Dan Camacho (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)/Kevin Craig (Ocean City, Md.).