Briefs: Pavlik nearly wins

One week after winning the prestigious Manhattan Beach Open, Whitney Pavlik (Laguna Beach) and partner Kerri Walsh Jennings (Manhattan Beach) just missed out on capturing another title on the 2013 Assn. of Volleyball Professionals Pro Beach Volleyball Tour.

Pavlik and Walsh Jennings reached the women’s final at the AVP Cincinnati Open Monday but the No. 2 seeded team in the tournament was upended by the No. 14-seeded team of Emily Day and Summer Ross. Day and Ross scored a 21-15, 21-11 victory to take their first tour title.

Day and Ross also defeated Pavlik/Walsh Jennings, 21-19. 21-15, in an earlier Winner’s Bracket Round 3 match.

Pavlik and Walsh Jennings, who had won the 53rd annual Manhattan Beach Open women’s title Aug. 25, reached Monday’s final by rallying past the tournament’s top-ranked team of April Ross and Jennifer Kessy, 19-21, 21-16, 15-10, in a semifinal Monday.

The men’s title was won Monday by the No. 2 team of Jake Gibb/Casey Patterson which defeated No. 5-seed Nick Lucena/Theodore Brunner in the final.

The next AVP Tour stop, the fourth of seven, is the DO AC Pro Beach Volleyball Invitational which starts Friday and runs through Sunday in Atlantic City, N.J.

The final stop of the 2013 AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour will be in Huntington Beach Oct. 19-20. The tournament will be played at the south side of the Huntington Beach Pier.

— From staff reports

*

ASP event at Trestles

The 34 surfers on the World Championship Tour circuit, along with wild cards Mitch Crews and Dane Reynolds, will battle it out Sept. 15 at the 2013 Hurley Pro at San Onofre State Beach-Lower Trestles.

The contest, which runs through Sept. 21, is the only Assn. of Surfing Professionals World Tour event in North America.

“I’m continually blown away by what the world’s best surfers can do at this wave,” said former Laguna Beach resident and Hurley Pro contest director, Pat O’Connell. “We’ve truly reached a level where these guys can pull off what they dream up, and Lowers is the perfect venue to watch them realize these dreams.”

O’Connell, now a resident of Dana Point, was inducted in 2009 into the Surfers’ Hall of Fame in Huntington Beach.

— From staff reports