News Beach volleyball 09/10/2014 USA’s Day/Hochevar on top after day one of Xiamen Open main draw Xiamen, China, October 9, 2014 – USA’s Emily Day andBrittany Hochevar come out on top of the all American clash to top their poolafter day one of the main draw at the 2014 FIVB Beach Volleyball World TourXiamen Open on Thursday. The $150,000 Open is FIVB’s third tournament in China thisyear and the second consecutive year the World Tour has been to Xiamen.Day/Hochevar met some very familiar faces duringtheir opening match of the Xiamen Open, USA’s Allison Nichole Daley and HeatherHughes. The two pairs are playing together for the first time this year and itwas Daley/Hughes who took the first set.Day/Hochevar turned the match around with some bigserving by Hochevar and powerful slams from both partners to secure the win 2-1(18-21, 21-19, 15-11). “It’s funny because we’ve played with each other, we’veplayed against each other. It’s always fun though to play against USA andbattle it out, we knew it was going to be a close game and it was,” said Day.“The last three events I’ve played with all three ofthose athletes so it’s quite unique and we know each other so, so well. We’veplayed a full season of AVP against each other and with each other. Of coursewe hope they get out of the pool and do well on their side but you don’t wantto see them until medal rounds usually,” said Hochevar.In Day/Hochevar’s second match of the day they met qualifiersTina Turnerova and Gabriela Tomašeková from Slovakia. The spirited Slovakianspulled out a good performance in the first set, but it was not quite enough toget ahead. The US pair’s strength began to take control in thesecond set and their 2-0 (21-16, 21-9) win places them top of Pool E after twomatches. They will face Poland’s Katarzyna Kociolek and Jagoda Gruszczynska inthe final pool match on Friday.“It’s always interesting when you’re dealing withelements like this with the wind and new teams that you haven’t seen before andeven from our side, working out a lot of communication stuff,” said Hochevar.“It’s important for us to go one ball at a time. As youprogress through a tournament one point at a time seems too big and you justhave to go one contact at a time and that’s important for any level whether it’san Open or a Grand Slam or a domestic tour event, it’s important that we don’ttake any ball lightly,” said Hochevar.Forrer/Vergé-Dépréget ahead in Pool FSwitzerland’s Isabelle Forrer and Anouk Vergé-Dépré areenjoying the luxury of ending the first day of main draw in top position afterearning two straight set wins. The Swiss pair first beat qualifiers LauraBloem and Marloes Wesselink from the Netherlands in their morning match onXiamen’s Guanyinshan Gold Beach, 2-0 (21-17,21-16).“We had some good rallies and some goodblock defence and I think that we put pressure of them with the serve. Theyalso made some good serving, but we kept the pressure and that’s why we won,”said Vergé-Dépré.Their second match was against Poland’s Dorota Stragand Karolina Baran which they closed in an efficient 16 minutes 2-0(21-18, 21-11).“It was really windy so we tried to play the ball lesshigh so that the wind couldn’t take the ball. That was a bit funny really, butwe are happy that we could win the game finally,” said Vergé-Dépré.Forrer/Vergé-Dépré are no strangers on the World Tour buthave only made it into the final 16 once this year at the FIVB Stavanger Grand Slam.The Swiss girls will face USA’s Tealle Hunkus and Kendra Vanzwieten in theirlast pool match on Friday.“Now it is a different situation for us. Normally weare third in the pool, now we’re pool head. We knew it was the first day and itwas important to win against the lower ranked team in your pool and that’s whatwe did. We did our job and so tomorrow we’re going to see what’s going to comeagainst the Americans and of course we will try to finish up first in our pool,”said Forrer.With the Grand Slam portionof the 2014 FIVB World Tour now complete, the tour continues after Xiamen withfour double-gender FIVB Open events along with one men-only FIVB Opentournament. The tour will travel to Argentinafor the FIVB Parana Open (Oct. 28-Nov. 2) before heading to Doha for themen-only FIVB Qatar Open (Nov. 4-8). India will then host the double-genderFIVB Vizag Open (Nov. 25-30), before the 2014 calendar comes to a close inSouth Africa with the double-gender FIVB Mangaung Open (Dec. 9-14). Print this Page News {{item.LocalShortDate}} {{item.Title}} All the News