Keenan gives good account
MANHATTAN BEACH — Brad Keenan capped off two convincing victories Friday with a dip in the Pacific Ocean, a little time in the shade and the chance to cheer on his celebrated wife, April Ross.
On the first day of the main draw of the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals Manhattan Beach Open, life was good for the 34-year-old Keenan. The Costa Mesa resident is openly savoring each step in the sand as his athletic hourglass empties, just past the midpoint of his final AVP season.
Keenan, who finished third in last year’s Manhattan Beach event, was a runner-up in 2011, and was also third in 2009, all with different partners, teamed with Billy Allen to cruise past a pair of opponents and into the winner’s bracket quarterfinals that begin Saturday.
The 6-foot-8 Keenan, a Fountain Valley High product who was a four-time All-American middle blocker at Pepperdine, and Allen, with whom Keenan reached the Manhattan Beach final in 2011, are coming off back-to-back fifth-place AVP finishes in Seattle and New York. They are the No. 7 seed this week.
“Our first [2015 AVP tournament in New Orleans] was a little tough, as we finished ninth,” Keenan said of reuniting this season with Allen. “Our communication, knowing where we are going to be, and our ability to just play together has been getting better and better.”
It would be difficult to imagine Keenan and Allen being any better than they were Friday. They dispatched No. 26-seeded David Vander Meer and Charles VanRees, 21-9, 21-15, in the opening round. They then annihilated the No. 10-seeded brother tandem of Brian and Tim Bomgren, 21-9, 21-15, in a mere 36 minutes to conserve some energy for the remaining tournament grind.
“Billy dug a ton of balls, I blocked a few and, I don’t know, I think everything was just going right for us,” Keenan said of the second match of the day, in which his team seized a 7-0 first-set lead and never looked back. “It was nice, because it doesn’t usually happen that way.”
Things were definitely not happening on the court for Keenan after college, when he put his accounting degree to work with some mind-numbing number-crunching that left him stranded at a desk and pining for the shore.
“It was terrible,” Keenan said of his sedentary accounting job that chipped away at his health and created a healthy appreciation for less monotonous days at the beach. “It was the same thing all day, every day. I gained 60 pounds, and I knew I couldn’t do it anymore. I was playing in a company basketball league, I had a breakaway, and when I went for the dunk, I missed it. When you’re 6-8 and you can’t dunk, there’s something wrong. So, I changed my diet and started working out again.”
Keenan, whose lone AVP victory came in the 2014 season opener in St. Petersburg, Fla. alongside John Mayer, has reached at least one semifinal in each of his previous nine professional seasons.
Like Ross, a two-time AVP women’s MVP who has won nine of the previous 10 AVP events and who along with fellow Costa Mesa resident Jennifer Fopma is the top-seed in Manhattan Beach, Keenan would like to claim a Manhattan Beach title. Ross accomplished the feat for the first time last year.
But this is the last chance for Keenan, who is pursuing a master’s degree in coaching at Concordia University, where he is a graduate assistant volleyball coach. Keenan, who had a birthday Monday, wants to be a full-time college assistant coach, either with an indoor or sand volleyball program, before he turns 35.
“When I first started playing on the beach, I never thought about coaching,” Keenan said. “But the last few years I’ve been doing a little more of it and I really enjoy it. I definitely enjoy coaching more than playing right now. I still love it out here [playing]. It’s fun. But I feel like I’d rather be coaching.”
Keenan said he and Ross, who married in 2010, are planning to have children after Ross competes in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Ross and Fopma won their two matches easily Friday. They handled No, 32-seeded Karissa Cook and Michel Iafigliola, 21-14, 21-17, in the morning, before trouncing No. 17-seeded Betsi Flint and Kelley Larsen, 21-11, 21-13, in a 29-minute afternoon mismatch.
Costa Mesa resident Sara Hughes, who won the last two collegiate pairs championships representing USC, teamed with Kelly Claes to win their opening-round match, before being knocked into the contender’s bracket of the double-elimination format.
Hughes and Claes, the No. 10-seeded duo, lost to No. 3-seeded Lane Carico and Summer Ross, 21-17, 21-10, in the second round after defeating No. 19-seeded Tess Buck and Allison Rogers, 21-14, 21-13. In the contender’s bracket, they topped No. 29-seeded Laura Ratto and Tanya White, 21-15, 21-9, to remain alive.
Former UC Irvine men’s indoor player Will Montgomery and partner Ed Ratledge, seeded No. 15, topped No. 18-seeded Marty Lorenz and Raffe Paulis, 21-15, 21-14, in the opening round.
Montgomery and Ratledge then fell to No. 2-seedeed Ryan Doherty and John Mayer, 21-14, 21-8, to fall into the contender’s bracket, where they defeated No. 16-seeded Adam Cabbage and John Moran, 22-20, 21-19.