Ross moving on after split with Walsh Jennings

Kerri Walsh Jennings announced this week that she and April Ross, who dominated the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals tour and earned a bronze medal in beach volleyball at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, will no longer play together.

The split stemmed from Walsh Jennings’ difficulty with signing an AVP player contract that would have forbidden her to play other domestic tournaments, such as the National Volleyball League.

The news was not pleasing to Ross, who has enthusiastically pledged her allegiance to the AVP and said she will now look forward to eventually teaming with Lauren Fendrick, beginning with the third AVP event of the season, June 8-11 in New York. Ross said she and Fendrick, with whom she teamed to win the only AVP event in which they played together in 2015, will also play Federation Internationale de Volleyball events in 2017.

Ross, a Costa Mesa resident who starred at Newport Harbor High, has paired with Laguna Beach High and UC Irvine alumnus Whitney Pavlik in the AVP season-opening Huntington Beach Open just north of the Huntington Beach Pier.

Ross and Pavlik, the No. 2 seed, lost to No. 6-seeded Betsi Flint and Kelley Larsen, 21-7, 21-19, in the second round of the main draw on Saturday morning. Ross, 34, and Pavlik, 33, who both grew up playing together for the Newport Beach-based Orange County Volleyball Club, then outlasted No. 5-seeded Kim DiCello and Emily Stockman, 25-23, 12-21, 16-14, in a 65-minute contender’s bracket struggle to advance to Sunday’s semifinals.

“I’m excited about the future and possibly playing with somebody different,” Ross, a three-time AVP MVP, said after topping DiCello and Stockman. “I think it’s going to provide a lot of growth and I feel like it’s the next step in my career. I think you can view change and chaos in different ways and I’m completely seeing the upside to it and the opportunity to get better and have a new partnership.”

Still, Ross acknowledged that splitting with Walsh Jennings, 38, a three-time gold medalist who remains an icon in the sport, was not something she wanted. Ross and Walsh Jennings won 12 of 13 AVP events in which they played together, including 11 straight from 2013, when they won all seven tour events, to 2016.

“It sucks for sure,” Ross said. “Obviously I loved playing with Kerri, we had a great run and I respect her a lot. But [playing together] is definitely not in the cards for this season.”

Ross said not signing with the AVP was never an option.

“Kerri thinks really big and she has a vision for her future and [the future of] beach volleyball,” Ross said. “She’s very determined to make that happen, so I think I don’t think we could have come to a compromise. I knew that I wanted to play AVP and I think she knew she wanted to try something else.

“I love the AVP and for me it is beach volleyball in the U.S. I grew up watching it and it’s where I cut my teeth and where I got good enough to play internationally. It has always been really good to me and I think [AVP owner Donald Sun] is doing it differently this time and I believe in his long-term vision for growth. I want to be a part of it. It really feels like a family out here. For me, it was a no-brainer. I just knew I wanted to be out here.

“I thought [Walsh Jennings and I] were on a good course and we committed to Tokyo [playing together in the 2020 Olympics],” Ross said. “It was definitely a stressful few days [surrounding the change] and the timing didn’t help, right before the season. But I tend not to dwell on things. I’m going to look forward and try to be positive. It is what it is and I can’t change that right now. I think I gave it the grieving it needed and now I’m just looking forward.”

Ross said she has gained widespread support from her AVP players, and said she embraces her new role as arguably the face of the AVP tour.

“There is nothing to be appreciative about, but I think [other players] understand how hard it was, the process of what I’ve been through,” Ross said. “I think they just understand. It’s gnarly. They’ve been really, really nice; not on the court, of course, but in the player tent.”

Ross also noted that no longer playing with Walsh Jennings will alleviate pressure to continually win.

“It’s kind of fun to be out her groveling and I’m stoked to make it to Sunday,” Ross said. “There’s nothing that says you have to win every time. Kerri and I had really high expectations and I still have high expectations for myself. [Striving to win] is always in you, but if that doesn’t happen every single time, you don’t beat yourself up over it. It’s fun to be out here competing and working for it.”

Ross and Pavlik meet top-seeded Emily Day and Brittany Hochevar in one semifinal on Sunday at 11:30 a.m.

The other women’s semifinal features Flint and Larsen against No. 4-seeded Fendrick and Lane Carico.

In the men’s bracket, Huntington Beach resident Jake Gibb and partner Taylor Crabb, the No. 1 seed, face No. 7-seeded Ryan Doherty and John Hyden in a 9:30 a.m. semifinal.

The other men’s semifinal pits No. 2-seeded Casey Patterson and Theo Brunner against No. 3-seeded Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena.

The finals follow on Sunday.

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Twitter: @BarryFaulkner5