Vive la Ross in France

MARSEILLE, France — The past two weeks have not been too kind to the duo of former Newport Harbor High standout April Ross and Jen Kessy.

But the beach volleyball tandem broke through in France on Sunday. Ross and Kessy defeated Vassilliki Arvaniti and Maria Tsiartsiani of Greece, 21-16, 21-7, to win the championship at the World Series 13 Grand Chelem. The event is part of the SWATCH Federation Internationale de Volleyball World Tour.

It took 42 minutes for Ross and Kessy, the No. 3-seeded team, to pull off the win over the No. 20th-seeded duo and earn the right share the $43,000 first-place prize. The Greeks split $28,000.

It was the first time since 2001 that the World Series 13 Grand Chelem featured a single-elimination at a SWATCH FIVB World Tour event.

Ross and Kessy had finished fifth and ninth the past two weeks on the world tour stops in Switzerland and Russia.

While Kessy and Ross had posted one upset win in their run to the gold medal in their first-ever appearance in Marseille on the Plages Gaston Defferre courts, Arvaniti and Tsiartsiani’s road to the finals featured seed-breakthrough victories over the 13th-, fourth-, fifth- and eighth-seeded pairs from Austria, the United States, Brazil and Germany, respectively.

Kessy was named the most outstanding player in France.

Ross and Kessy, who advanced to their seventh SWATCH FIVB World Tour final in their last nine international starts, defeated Arvaniti and Tsiartsiani in an elimination match at the world championships three weeks ago in Norway before scoring a pool play victory a week later in the Swiss Grand Slam in Gstaad.

In becoming the sixth American team to win a Marseille gold medal, Kessy and Ross also secured their fifth SWATCH FIVB World Tour title together in 26 starts together while competing in their ninth international finale.

On their way to Sunday’s match, Kessy and Ross scored a 21-16, 21-13 win in 38 minutes over Talita Antunes and Maria Antonelli of Brazil. At the end of May, the Brazilians defeated Kessy and Ross twice in Korea to win the FIVB stop in Seoul.

The final FIVB World Tour stop is Austria this week.

— From staff reports