Ross claims crown in Utah

April Ross, a Costa Mesa resident and Newport Harbor High product, teamed with Jennifer Kessy to win the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals’ Salt Lake City beach volleyball tournament on Sunday.

The top-seeded duo of Ross and Kessy, silver medalists at the 2012 Olympics in London, defeated Lauren Fendrick and Brittany Hochevar, 20-22, 21-18, 15-13, in the final.

In the men’s AVP event at the same venue, Costa Mesa resident Jake Gibb teamed with Casey Patterson to earn a share of third place. Gibb and Patterson were eliminated in the semifinals by eventual runners-up Ryan Doherty and Todd Rogers.

Former UC Irvine women’s standout Whitney Pavlik, playing with three-time Olympic gold medalist Kerri Walsh Jennings, shared fifth place after falling to fellow Americans Jennifer Fopma and Brooke Sweat, 22-20, 21-14, in the quarterfinals.

The next stop for the AVP tour is Aug. 23-25 in Manhattan Beach.

In earlier beach volleyball action at the Federation Internationale de Volleyball, completed Aug. 11 in Berlin, Germany, Gibb and Patterson lost in the round of 16 to Germany’s Sebastian Dollinger and Stefan Windscheif, 27-25, 19-21, 15-11, to share ninth place.

In the women’s round of 16, Ross and Kessy, seeded fifth, lost to the No. 16-seeded Fopma and Sweat, 21-12, 21-13.

Pavlik, playing with Emily Day, bowed out in the first round of the women’s playoffs, falling to Svetlana Popova and Maria Prokepeva of Russia, 21-17, 19-21, 16-14.

— From staff reports