{"id":211,"date":"2015-08-19T00:32:48","date_gmt":"2015-08-19T00:32:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/sports\/draft-players-share-excitement-as-asics-world-series-of-beach-volleyball-comes-to-long-beach-3\/"},"modified":"2015-08-19T00:32:48","modified_gmt":"2015-08-19T00:32:48","slug":"draft-players-share-excitement-as-asics-world-series-of-beach-volleyball-comes-to-long-beach-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/draft-players-share-excitement-as-asics-world-series-of-beach-volleyball-comes-to-long-beach-3","title":{"rendered":"Players, Including Kerri Walsh Jennings, Share Excitement as ASICS World Series of Beach Volleyball Arrives in Long Beach"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"playermediaevent\"<\/p>\n

Professional beach volleyball athletes, including Kerri Walsh Jennings (seated second from left) take part in a media event on Tuesday, August 18, in Long Beach. Photo by Stephanie Rivera. <\/em><\/p>\n

The ASICS World Series of Beach Volleyball began Tuesday in Long Beach\u2019s Alamitos Beach with qualifying matches for the professional tournament and a media day where some of the sport\u2019s top competitors shared their excitement for the upcoming days.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a really big deal, not only for us Americans here, but for our sport,\u201d said three-time Olympic gold medalist Kerri Walsh Jennings during a mid-day media event. \u201cTo have an event like this that’s so grand, so prestigious, that’s running every single year with the backing of an amazing global company like ASICS, I\u2019m really proud to be here and I\u2019m proud that the best in the world have showed up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walsh Jennings\u2014who will participate in the tournament, which is critical to her qualifying for the 2016 Olympics\u2014will also be debuting a part of her fashion line in collaboration with ASICS. \"coedvolleyballmatch\"<\/p>\n

For Brazilian players Barbara Seixas and Agatha Bednarczuk\u2014the current top-ranked FIVB women\u2019s beach volleyball team in the world\u2014the tournament means a chance to play among the best and in a place with so much beach volleyball history.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the atmosphere is great, similar to what we are used to, good weather and nice people around us,\u201d Seixas said. \u201cIt\u2019s a great event. Not only the athletes and the way they play, but also we like to share a little bit of this energy and the message that we are trying to bring to everybody is a healthy way of living and the happiness and joy to do what you love.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tournament\u2014the final U.S.-based qualifier for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janerio\u2014is scheduled to bring in 128 of the world\u2019s top beach volleyball players during its week-long run, August 18-23.<\/p>\n

The series of events will also feature mostly free activities for fans to take part in, including open tournaments for all ages and experiences.<\/p>\n

There will also be musical performances by Adam Lambert and American Author, a \u201cLegends Night\u201d honoring the 1996 Olympic beach volleyball team, and a celebrity match hosted by actor Josh Hutcherson (The Hunger Games<\/em>) that will benefit the Straight But Not Narrow nonprofit organization.<\/p>\n

For more information on the tournament and activities click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

All photos by Stephanie Rivera. <\/em><\/p>\n

{gallery}stephanie\/2015asicsbeachvolleyball{\/gallery}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The ASICS World Series of Beach Volleyball began Tuesday on Long Beach\u2019s Alamitos Beach, with qualifying matches for the professional tournament and a media day where some of the sport\u2019s top competitors shared their excitement for the upcoming days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":155,"featured_media":16552,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[61],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-beach-volleyball","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/155"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=211"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}