B.J. Evans
Manager, Media Relations and Publications
Phone: 719-228-6800
E-Mail: bj.evans@usav.org

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (May 15, 2008) - USA Volleyball has announced the beach volleyball teams that will represent the United States at the 2008 World University Championships on July 2-7, 2008 in Hamburg, Germany. The team was selected after a USAV Beach national team camp and tryout held on May 9-11 in Playa de Rey, Calif.

The women's teams going to Germany will be Keegan Featherstone (Hermosa Beach, Calif.) of UC Irvine and Lauren Fendrick (Los Angeles, Calif.) of UCLA along with Kari Pestolesi (Huntington Beach, Calif.) of UC Irvine and Olivia Waldowski (Irvine, Calif.) of UC Santa Barbara.

The men's teams will be Joey Dykstra (Hermosa Beach, Calif.) of USC and Mark Van Zwieten (Pompano Beach, Fla.) of Florida Atlantic University along with Duncan Budinger (Encinitas, Calif.) and Clint Coe (Mission Viejo, Calif.), both of Long Beach State.

"We are happy with the team we have put together," said Ali Wood, USA Volleyball's Director of Beach Programs. "These players really worked hard in trying out for the team."

The women's alternate teams are Heather Kisner (Austin, Texas) of the University of Texas and Tanya White (Monterey Park, Calif.) of Cal State Los Angeles along with Lauren Paolini (Austin, Texas) of the University of Texas and Devon Sutherland (Corona, Calif.) of UC Irvine. The men's alternate teams are Sean Allstot (Brentwood, Calif.) and Braidy Halverson (Hermosa Beach, Calif.), both of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, along with Jesse Rambis (Playa Vista, Calif.) of UCLA and JD Schleppenbach (Ventura, Calif.) of Pepperdine.

Training teams for the World University Championship were also selected at the tryout. For the women, Ashley Engle (Yorba Linda, Calif.) and Lauren Paolini (Ann Arbor, Mich.), both of the University of Texas, Lauren Deturk (Yucaipa, Calif.) of Northeastern University and Taylor Carico (Manhattan Beach, Calif.) of USC will be on the training team. For the men, Ryan Ammerman (Parker, Colo.) and Taylor Wilson (Mission Viejo, Calif.), both of UC Irvine, and Chase Ross (Carlsbad, Calif.) and Schleppenbach, both from Pepperdine, will make up the training team.

Fifty-nine total athletes (36 women and 23 men) representing 30 different colleges participated in the first of two USAV Beach tryout camps, which was led by USAV youth and junior beach coach Danalee Corso. Other coaches included Wood; AVP veteran athletes and coaches Brian Corso, Cam Green, and Rocky Mayo; retired AVP athlete and national camp director for Sinjin Smith's beach camps Kerri Eich and South Bay Volleyball Club's Branden Higa.