Walsh Jennings/Ross closing in on AVP history with first-round victory

Playing their first full pro beach volleyball season together on the AVP Tour, three-time Olympic gold medalist Kerri Walsh Jennings and 2012 Olympic silver medalist April Ross couldn’t have expected a better beginning to their partnership. The dynamic duo stands four matches away from completing a perfect 2014 AVP season after Friday’s first-round victory at the $200,000 AVP Championships at Huntington Beach presented by smart.

Costa Mesa resident Ross, a former Newport Harbor High standout, and Walsh Jennings coasted past inaugural AVPNext Championship Cup winners Kaui Salzman and Keao Burdine, 21-8, 21-12, in the women’s draw Friday afternoon.

Walsh Jennings, the winningest player in women’s beach volleyball history, and Ross are seeded first and are attempting to make AVP history this weekend by becoming the first team to win every AVP event in a given season. The tandem sports a 32-0 match record on the 2014 AVP Tour and has won 64 of the 68 sets they have played.

Top-seeded Jake Gibb and Casey Patterson, winners of the past two AVP tournaments in Atlantic City and Cincinnati, and three of the past four events, stormed to a 21-10, 21-14 triumph over men’s AVPNext Championship Cup winners Bobby Webb and Duncan Budinger (Encinitas, Calif.), the brother of NBA/Minnesota Timberwolves forward Chase Budinger. Gibb and Patterson are Huntington Beach residents.

Second-round play for the 16-team, double-elimination AVP Championships at Huntington Beach – the last of seven events on the 2014 AVP Tour – resumes Saturday at 9 a.m.

— From staff reports