BY TONY LEE
HERMOSA BEACH — Fatigue might’ve been a factor for the local duo of Sean Rosenthal and Jake Gibb at the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals’ Hermosa Beach Open Sunday, but these two wouldn’t admit to it.
“No,” was the one-word answer Rosenthal gave when asked about fatigue of playing in a tournament-high seven matches at Hermosa Beach, including a 66-minute battle between Estancia High product Matt Fuerbringer and Casey Jennings at the end of Saturday.
However, their coach Mike Dodd, who also guided the women’s winning duo of Nicole Branagh and Elaine Youngs this week, said fatigue was a factor as the No. 3-seeded Rosenthal and Gibb lost to John Hyden and Sean Scott, seeded second, in the semifinals Sunday, 23-21, 21-14.
For reaching the semifinals, Rosenthal and Gibb split $14,200.
“You know, we’ve played in some long, hard matches through the tournament and I think not winning that first game really kind of knocked the wind out of our sails,” Dodd said.
In that first game, Rosenthal, a Corona del Mar resident, and Gibb of Costa Mesa came back from a 13-9 deficit to serve for match point at 18-20.
But Scott, who had eight blocks in the game with nine kills and four digs, made some critical blocks in the two sets to stop the local duo from a back-to-back AVP title bid.
“They’re obviously tired because they lost early yesterday and had to play a bunch of games,” Scott said. “Sometimes you lose early, you got to battle and we were fortunate to stay in the winner’s bracket. Still, they battled. They made us play our A-game to try and beat them.”
When asked if Scott was just timing the jumps well Sunday, Rosenthal, who had a tournament-high 90 digs, 103 kills and four blocks at Hermosa Beach, said, “He got lucky.”
But Dodd said Scott’s success had nothing to do with luck.
“If you watch Sean Scott play, you know it’s not lucky,” Dodd said. “I think inch-for-inch, he’s the best blocker out here. His eye work and his hand work are flawless at the net ... I think he’s maybe the best blocker. He may not be the most intimidating but by far one of the best.”
Game Two showed Rosenthal and Gibb’s first sign of fatigue as the local duo started out trailing 8-2.
