Beach Volleyball Notebook: Ross checks off milestone

April Ross is already considered to be among a handful of the best players in the history of beach volleyball. So it’s news when she is recognized for an accomplishment she had not already checked off her competitive bucket list.

But that’s exactly what Ross did Thursday, when a plaque acknowledging her victory with Kerri Walsh Jennings at the 2014 Assn. of Volleyball Professionals Manhattan Beach Open was affixed to the Manhattan Beach Pier.

Ross, a Newport Harbor High product who along with fellow Costa Mesa resident Jennifer Fopma is the No. 1 seed in this year’s Manhattan Beach event that began with qualifying on Thursday, won her first Manhattan Beach crown last year playing with Kerri Walsh Jennings.

Ross, who won a silver medal in the 2012 Olympic Games in London, said winning in Manhattan Beach, considered the mecca of beach volleyball in America, left only an Olympic gold medal on the list of athletic accomplishments she has yet to attain.

“I’m so excited about it,” Ross said earlier this week about her plaque, as well as that of Walsh Jennings, who is currently injured, being placed on the pier. “I know this is like the 20th time [seventh actually] that Kerri has had her name up there. I’ve won 22 AVP tournaments, but only one Manhattan. I’m super stoked and it was definitely one of the things I really wanted to do in my career. I definitely want to get another plaque up there before my career is over, too.”

As it relates to pursuing Olympic gold, Ross plans to play with Walsh Jennings, who will return for next week’s Federation Internationale de Volleyball World Series of Beach Volleyball in Long Beach, in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil next summer. Walsh Jennings, the all-time beach volleyball victories leader, won Olympic gold medals with former partner and Newport Harbor High legend Misty May-Treanor in 2004, 2008 and 2012.

Ross, 33, also said she plans to make a run at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, though that would be without Walsh Jennings, who would be retired.

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•Ross, who has won nine of the last 10 AVP events, including a run of eight straight with Walsh Jennings that included a 41-match winning streak and last week with Fopma in Seattle, said she is still ascending toward her peak.

“I’m still going up,” said the 6-foot-1 Ross, who was named Most Valuable Player on the AVP tour in 2013 and 2014. “I’m playing the best I’ve ever played right now and, physically, I feel the best I’ve ever felt. So, I feel strong and, knock on wood, I’m not injured at all. I just want to ride this feeling for as long as I can and I think I still have a lot of potential and that I can get a lot better.”

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•Costa Mesa resident Sara Hughes, a two-time national collegiate sand volleyball pairs champion who will be a junior at USC this fall, is a player whose potential appears vast.

Hughes and USC teammate Kelly Claes are seeded No. 14 for the Manhattan Beach event, scheduled to conclude Sunday.

Hughes, whose older brother Connor Hughes helped UC Irvine win a pair of NCAA titles and was NCAA Tournament MVP in 2013, teamed with Claes to finish third at the AVP event in New York last month. Hughes and Claes were seeded No. 10 in the qualifier at New York, then were seeded No. 16 in the main draw. No women’s team in AVP history had been seeded so poorly and advanced to the semifinals.

“I’ve trained with her and she is really good,” Ross said of Hughes, who played at Mater Dei High.”She is going to continue to be in contention.”

Hughes and Claes have won two NORCEA beach qualifier events in 2015 and will compete in the World Series of Beach Volleyball in Long Beach next week.

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•May-Treanor, who won 112 beach tournaments and two Olympic gold medals before retiring following the 2012 Olympic final in London, showed last week that she still has a little potential of her own.

May-Treanor, who turned 38 on July 30, teamed with Brittany Hochevar to finish third at the AVP event completed Sunday in Seattle.

May-Treanor, who won five Manhattan Beach titles, including four straight with Walsh Jennings from 2005-08, had not competed professionally in nearly three years before taking the court in Seattle. It was her first appearance in an AVP event since July of 2010.

Yet May-Treanor’s showing in Seattle was hardly surprising to her peers.

“At first, I wondered how it was going to go,” Fopma said of May’s return. “And then she got on the court and it looked like she was the old Misty. She can do anything. It was ridiculous. All the players caught ourselves watching her matches, because she is just incredible, at any age. It was so fun to watch. I was glad I didn’t have to play her.”

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•Entering the Manhattan Beach main draw on Friday, Ross leads 2015 AVP women’s players in aces (1.52 per game) and hitting percentage (.556) and ranks third in kills (6.93 per set) and digs (5.97 per set).

The 5-10 Hughes ranks second with a .482 hitting percentage.

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•Former OCC standout Brad Keenan, who is married to Ross, is the No. 7 seed in the Manhattan Beach men’s draw. He is teamed with Billy Allen of Redondo Beach.

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•Included in the field for the men’s qualifier Thursday was Michael Saeta, who started most of the season at setter for UCI as a sophomore in 2015.

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•This is the 53rd Manhattan Beach Open for men and the 34th for women, the most for any site in the history of the sport. And the storied tradition includes some Newport-Mesa highlights, including men’s winners John Vallely, Matt Fuerbringer and Jake Gibb.

Vallely, a Corona del Mar High product who played basketball at UCLA and in the NBA, won the 1969 men’s event with Ron Van Hagen.

Fuerbringer, who helped Estancia High win its only state basketball championship in 1991, teamed with Casey Jennings to win the 2013 title.

Gibb, a former longtime Costa Mesa resident who moved to Huntington Beach last year, teamed with Sean Rosenthal to win the event in 2013.

Keenan and Allen were second in 2011, while Keenan and John Mayer finished third last year.

Former CdM High and OCC standout Brian Lewis, as well as Steve Timmons, who played basketball at Newport Harbor High and OCC, had runner-up showings with their partners in 1994 and 1991, respectively.

Fopma lost in the title match in her previous three Manhattan Beach events (2011-13), with two different partners). She was injured and did not compete in 2014.