Matt Fuerbringer Will Not Compete in France with his New Partner
While Casey Jennings is moving forward with his newly found partner Brad Kennan, Matt Fuerbringer seems to be unsatisfied by his. He will not be part of the participants for the upcoming AVP tour event in Marseille, France next week.
Fuerbringer was defeated with his partner Nick Lucena by Poland’s 7th Fijalek / Prudel 21-14, 21-18 after 39 minutes. This match was the opening—and in this case also closing— doors to the quarter-finals of the Gstaad event in Switzerland. While the defeat appeared to be hard to swallow for the American team, this result was a much better performance than his now rival Jennings, who lost with his partner in the earlier stages of elimination. Jennings and Keenan however will be teaming up again for the competition in Marseille, apparently not unsettled by those outcomes.
Fuerbringer a veteran
Fuerbringer’s has been playing beach volleyball for a long time, and for the most part with Jennings. He began his professional beach volleyball career in 1999, in Muskegon with Alika Williams, and finished 13th, before uniting with Casey Jennings in the following year. He and Jennings then entered the Hermosa Beach competition, and finished 57th. Fuerbringer entered two other tournaments with different partners that year, but united with Jennings five times, ranking at best 17th. The following years passed just as this one, with Fuerbringer entering competitions with new partners, trying different game plays and exploring his options.
In 2003, the former team was reunited and Fuerbringer joined Jennings. The two reached four finals out of the first five tournaments. At Manhattan Beach, the Americans were placed third, and Jennings was the fifth ranked player on the tour. The Fuerbringer/Jennings team played six times internationally on the same year, and ranked at best ninth.
On the following year, the team was still united. They won in Belmar, New Jersey their first title, which was the beginning of their ascension. For the following years, the duo would win at least one AVP tournament per season, from 2004 to 2008.
In 2007 however, Fuerbringer teamed up with Sean Scott—currently the best AVP beach volleyball player—for the first 10 AVP events, while Jennings partnered with Mark Williams during those same tournaments. Fuerbringer then ranked at best third, which he achieved twice. When compared with Jennings’ best ranking, ninth, one might have thought their partnership was over. Jennings and Fuerbringer however reunited to finish the season, and reached the final in Boston. They later won the season finale in San Francisco. Fuerbringer, of Swiss origins, was then ranked 10th on tour and ranked fourth individually. He was then fifth in blocks per game, and second in hitting percentage.
The next year, Fuerbringer managed to reach with Jennings seven semi-finals, with one in Manhattan Beach. They also entered two finals, winning one in San Diego. With Jennings, Fuerbringer was third for the in the Olympic qualifications, but could not represent their homeland due to country quotas.
In 2009, Fuerbringer’s partnership with Jennings was put on the side for the first part of the season, and he ranked fifth with Stein Metzger. He then reunited with Jennings, with whom he won the silver medal on the FIVB Tour in Poland. The American duo then finished fifth at the World Championships in Stavanger.
End of a partnership
In 2010 Jennings found himself another partner: Brad Keenan, now ranked AVP No. 19. Meanwhile, Fuerbringer began a new partnership with Nick Lucena. Lucena and Fuerbringer reached the finale in Fort Lauderdale this year, before it was cancelled due to a bad weather. They then won in Virginia Beach, marking their first victory together.
As the upcoming AVP event in France will occur without Fuerbringer, the originating Swiss might be looking for his next partner in order to find the perfect combination of skills with his own. Or he might just always change partners, just to develop new sets of skills. With Fuerbringer, it is very hard to tell.
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