The top four men’s seeds advanced, and on the women’s side, Nos. 2, 3 and 4 are left in the in the winners-bracket.
But there was one big upset Friday in the AVP Pro Series Fort Lauderdale Open. Eighth-seeded Tina Graudina, the Latvian Olympian reunited with USC teammate Hailey Harward, knocked off top-seeded USA Olympian Sarah Sponcil (formerly of UCLA) and another former USC standout, Terese Cannon 21-16, 15-21, 15-9.
Saturday afternoon, Graudina and Harward will play the former LSU pair of fourth-seeded Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss, while second-seeded Olympian Kelly Cheng (another former Trojan) and Betsi Flint (who played at Loyola Marymount, where Sponcil also played before transferring to UCLA) play third-seeded Sara Hughes (Cheng’s former partner at USC) and Kelley Kolinske (Pepperdine)
Also in the contenders bracket with Sponcil and Cannon are fifth-seeded Brazilians Larissa and Lili Maestrini, the hottest team on tour. They lost to Kloth and Nuss 21-17, 14-21, 15-13.
On the men’s side, top-seeded Theo Brunner and Chaim Schalk play Taylor Sander and Taylor Crabb, and second-seeded Tri Bourne and Trevor Crabb play third-seeded Chase Budinger and Troy Field.
Bourne and Crabb won two tough battles, first over 15th-seeded Travis Mewhirter (Bourne’s partner on the SANDCAST podcast) 21-16, 22-20 and then 10th-seeded John Hyden and Logan Webber 21-19, 21-19.
In the second round, Crabb and Sander had to rally to beat fourth-seeded Paul Lotman and Miles Partain in three and Budinger and Field went three in beating 11th-seeded Avery Drost and Miles Evans.
Click here for the complete women’s results and schedule, and here for the men’s, courtesy of BVBinfo.com.
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