Ross, May-Treanor highlight action at AVP Championships

April Ross and Misty May-Treanor, the former Newport Harbor High stars, competed with Lauren Fendrick and Brittany Hochevar, respectively, highlighting the action at the Kingston Assn. of Volleyball Professionals Championships at Huntington Beach.

Ross, who won last year’s AVP Championships at Huntington Beach with Kerri Walsh Jennings, is partnering with Fendrick as Walsh Jennings remains sidelined due to a shoulder injury. The 11th-seeded pair beat sixth-seeded Amanda Dowdy and Heather McGuire, 21-16, 21-23, 15-8, before dispatching third-seeded Angela Bensend and Los Alamitos native Geena Urango, 21-17, 21-11.

Ross will take on her former Olympic partner Jennifer Kessy (teamed with Emily Day) Saturday at 11:10 a.m.

May-Treanor, the three-time Olympic gold medalist with Walsh Jennings, made her first AVP Tour appearance in Southern California since retiring following the 2012 London Olympics on Friday and advanced through the contenders’ bracket to play on Saturday. The May-Treanor/Hochevar tandem reached the semifinals at the AVP Kingston Seattle Open last month in May-Treanor’s first AVP event back from retirement.

May Treanor/Hochevar dropped Friday’s first-round match to last week’s AVP Kingston Cincinnati Open champions, Kelley Larsen and Betsi Metter-Flint, 13-21, 21-16, 15-11, before eliminating fourth-seeded Ali McColloch and Emily Stockman from the contenders’ bracket, 21-18, 12-21, 15-11. May-Treanor suffered her first loss in the opening two rounds of an AVP tournament since she joined the AVP Tour in 2003, and it was only the sixth time in her illustrious career that she lost a pre-semifinal AVP match.

— From staff reports