Monday, August 10, 2015

Ross/Fopma, Doherty/Mayer and The Seattle Volleyball Community Win at the AVP Seattle Open!

April Ross and Jen Fopma were AVP Seattle Open Champions!

Four days of exciting volleyball culminated in two three set matches Sunday afternoon at Lake Samammish State Park.  The first was a victory for Ryan Doherty and John Mayer over Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena in the men's final broadcast live on NBC.  April Ross and Jenn Fopma defeated Lane Carica and Summer Ross in the Women's final right afterwards.

The most impressive performance of the weekend was put up by the Seattle Volleyball community who filled the stadium throughout the event despite the fact that thousands of beach volleyball diehards were competing in the Seaside Beach Volleyball Tournament.  Sunday's finals were standing room only and the atmosphere was electric.

Will Montgomery digging a shot with a paraglider landing in the background.
Photo Credit Mati Bishop


The venue provided fans with the opportunity to drink in some of the Northwest's natural beauty between rallies and lent itself nicely to a family day at the Lake, with pro beach volleyball at its focal point.  The athletes regularly took a post match dip in Lake Sammamish to cool off, powerboats dropped anchor so their occupants could come ashore to watch and paragliders landed on the beach next to the outer courts.  For a couple days, volleyball fans had a Northwest paradise.

The grandstand was full throughout the weekend!

 All indications point towards the Seattle Open becoming a regular event on the AVP Tour.  With tons of room for expansion in the park and a solid turnout for this year's event, the sky is the limit for what the AVP Seattle Open could become.  Make sure to check out #avpseattle on Twitter and Instagram to see all of the different perspectives of the AVP Seattle Open.

The return to professional competition for Misty May-Treanor was just one of the story lines that made the 2015 Seattle Open a memorable event!