They advance to today's semifinals against a team to be determined.
Fellow Costa Mesa resident Mike Lambert and partner Stein Metzger, the No. 1-seeded team, are also still alive. Lambert and Metzger lost Saturday morning to No. 8-seeded Dax Holdren and Sean Scott, 21-19, 21-18. But they rebounded for a pair of contender's bracket wins, 21-19, 21-17 over No. 11-seeded Brent Doble and Matt Olson and then 21-14, 21-5 over No. 17-seeded Adam Jewell and Jose Loiola.
Lambert and Metzger face No. 6-seeded Anthony Medel and Fred Souza today at 8:30 a.m., with a spot in the semifinals — against Holdren and Scott — on the line.
It certainly wasn't easy for Gibb and Rosenthal. In their first match of the day, they outlasted Estancia High graduate Matt Fuerbringer and partner Casey Jennings, 21-15, 19-21, 15-12. Then, they outlasted Medel and Souza in another three-game match, 21-18, 16-21, 15-11.
"[Rosenthal's] just been steady, that's been the biggest thing for our team right now," Gibb said. "He's been super-steady."
Lambert said he was disappointed with his team's performance Saturday, in the sense that it is the Manhattan Beach Open. Lambert won the prestigious tournament in 2004 with beach volleyball legend Karch Kiraly.
"It's a bummer," Lambert said. "It's Manhattan and you want to play your best here, but luckily it's double-elimination. We did start to play better and better as they day went on. Our last match was probably our best match."
He said Medel and Souza both have big serves, which will provide a challenge in this morning's match.
"They're a good team," Lambert said. "They've been playing well and they've both got great serves. We'll have to pass well, that'll be the key. They're going to want to get their points off serving tough, and we're going to want to pass well so we can side out."
