BEACH VOLLEYBALL:Fuerbringer swaps partners

Estancia High graduate Matt Fuerbringer has made quite a career of playing beach volleyball.

Fuerbringer, 33, who now lives in Redondo Beach, ended last year ranked fourth in the AVP with partner Casey Jennings. It was the first time in their four seasons together that they had finished lower than third.

But they decided to move on in the offseason and the 6-foot-7 Fuerbringer will now pair with Sean Scott, when the season opens April 13-16 with the Miami Open.

At Thursday’s AVP Tour launch party at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, Fuerbringer said deciding to part with Jennings was strictly a business move.

“I think we ended on a good note,” Fuerbringer said. “He’s still one of my good friends. It’s like the first girlfriend. We accomplished a lot of stuff. We had our first tournament win together, we won four tournaments, only three teams won last year and we were one of them. We were a great team.”

But both players longed to be ranked No. 1 and decided to move on. Fuerbringer said he is excited about pairing with Scott. Like Fuerbringer, Scott usually has played blocker, which Fuerbringer said will add a measure of versatility to their partnership.

“If I’m blocking and we’re not scoring points, I can send him up there with full confidence,” Fuerbringer said. “It just gives us another look, another option. If things are going great, you don’t need it, but if you start to struggle it helps to have another option to change it up.”

Fuerbringer, a four-time All-American at Stanford and a member of the school’s 1997 National Championship team, won the Seaside Heights Open last July for his only 2006 AVP Tour victory. Coincidentally, he and Jennings beat Scott and his former teammate Dax Holdren in a close championship match, 16-21, 21-12, 17-15.

FUERBRINGER IN TOUCH

Fuerbringer remains in touch with his Estancia ties, even if he was more known for basketball in those days. He said he still talks regularly to former basketball coach Tim O’Brien, who coached Fuerbringer on the Eagles’ 1990-91 CIF Division III state championship team.

O’Brien now coaches at Northwood High in Irvine, where his son, Chris, was a senior who averaged a team-high 19.6 points per game last season for the Timberwolves.

“I went to watch a game,” Fuerbringer said. “[Chris] was a baby when I was a sophomore in high school. It put me in my place with how old I’m getting.”

ROSS REMEMBERS WHEN

For Newport Harbor High graduate April Ross, last year was a season of adjustment.

Ross, who helped Newport Harbor High to back-to-back CIF Division I state championships, went on to help USC to back-to-back NCAA Championships in 2002 and ’03. In 2003, she was the NCAA Player of the Year.

But Ross, 24, is now on the AVP Tour. And, even though she earned Rookie of the Year honors last year and had two ninth-place finishes with teammate Keo Burdine, she said it was a very tough adjustment from indoor volleyball to beach volleyball.

“I’d say it was harder than I thought it would be,” said the 6-1 Ross, who will team with tour veteran Nancy Mason this year. “I was really frustrated when I first came out, and I felt like I couldn’t do anything. It took me about half the season to actually feel comfortable in the sand, and I’m still getting more and more comfortable.”

But Ross credited Newport Harbor Coach Dan Glenn for first getting her into beach volleyball. The Sailors still have a beach court on campus, and Ross recalled Glenn making the team work out on the sand.

“Of course, I hated it then, but I think it benefited me in the long run,” said Ross, who resides in Diamond Bar. “Having Dan Glenn as a coach was really crucial for me and the success I’ve achieved so far. He made sure I was an all-around player.”

LAMBERT HAS EXPERIENCE

Mike Lambert, by contrast, is already at the top of the game. The Costa Mesa resident who grew up in Hawaii was part of the AVP Team of the Year last year with Stein Metzger, and won five different events.

Lambert, who teamed with legendary partner Karch Kiraly in 2004 and was named AVP Most Valuable Player, said sticking with Metzger this year was an easy choice.

“It’s nice when you can play with the same partner a few years in a row,” said Lambert, 32. “This offseason we got to work on a bunch of different stuff, that’ll hopefully make us better and more dynamic. It’s really important to be on the same page and nail the game plan down.”

He said he’s looking forward to the FIVB World Championships, to be held in Switzerland on July 25-29. The event is worth triple points for qualifying for the 2008 Olympics.

“If you can get a medal in the World Championships, with triple points, you’re putting yourself in a great position to qualify and be one of the two teams representing the U.S. in the Olympics,” Lambert said. “Come talk to us at the end of July, and we’ll be smiling or we’ll be pouting.”

NICE TIMING LAMBERT

Lambert had a son, Jack, who was born last October, coinciding nicely with the end of the volleyball season.

But during the season he has little time to do much of anything but play volleyball. He said this was shown after the AVP Chicago Open last July, which he and Metzger won. They then had a quick turnaround to an FIVB event in France.

“Last year, we played in the final in Chicago, and then showered at the site with a hose and a bar of soap,” Lambert said. “Then, I threw on my running shoes, jumped in a cab and I’m eating potato chips, because it was the only food I could get before my 12-hour flight to Europe. As soon as you get off the plane in Europe, you’re jet-lagged, but you’ve got to practice and play the next day. It’s just doing things on the fly.”

GIBB EYES STRONG START

Jake Gibb, a Costa Mesa resident, hopes to get over the hump this year with partner Sean Rosenthal.

Last season, Gibb and Rosenthal won the season-opening event in Fort Lauderdale and went to five other championship matches. But they finished second each time, three of the losses coming to Lambert and Metzger.

However, they rebounded to win the season-ending FIVB event in Acapulco, Mexico.

“Taking second, that’s tough to swallow, but there are also 24 other positions,” said Gibb, 31. “You can take a 25th. We were putting ourselves in a position to win the event. That’s all you can ask to do, get yourself there and close out the deal. We just had a little trouble with the closing out.”

MARK THOSE CALENDARS

The AVP comes to Huntington Beach May 3-6 and will make its first stop in Long Beach July 19-22.