Rosie and EY Win!

Huntington Beach, CA - 5/5/08

AVP Crocs Tour rolled into Huntington Beach, CA on Thursday of this past week providing four days of non-stop action – including over 200 matches. The favorites had aligned themselves for a final day showdown on Sunday, with the number one seeds Phil Dalhausser (Oakley) & Todd Rogers, and Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor making the semifinals. But both would not move on, Phil and Todd lost to the number four seed of Hyden and Keenan, and Kerri and Misty won their match, but had to forfeit due to Kerri’s injured shoulder.

The three seed Jake Gibb and Sean “Rosie” Rosenthal (Oakley) took on John Hyden and Brad Keenan in the finals in a hard fought 47 minutes of action. In the end Rosie and Jake closed it out in two games – 21-18 and 21-16. The win gave the duo their first AVP win in 2008 with the Cuervo Gold Crown Championship and bonus money of $25,000.

"We've played in a lot of finals and it's been a long time coming for us to keep getting in the finals and not winning," said Rosenthal. "The best thing for us is getting the win. We needed this.... We have the Olympics and a lot more tournaments coming up this year, so we need to get to the final and finish it off."

Although team Walsh and May-Treanor defeated the four seed Davis and Johnson Jordan in the semifinals, they forfeited playing in the final due to Walsh’s shoulder. The result gave Nicole Branagh and Elaine Youngs, aka EY their first win in 2008 on the AVP tour and the bonus check.

"My first reaction when I heard about Kerri was that I felt for them as we want them to be at 100 percent," said Youngs. "At first we were excited about winning the money, but then we realized we had a match to play so we had to fire up and go at it."

EY and Branagh’s played in an exhibition game for the sold out crowd and did not disappoint by beating the four seed of Davis and Jordan Johnson in three tough games, 15-21, 21-13 and 17-15!

Make sure to check out the flash photo gallery highlighting many of the Oakley players from Friday’s action.

Matthew Murray
Oakley: Sports Marketing Media