Rio-bound ORoss and Walsh Jeings are top seed for AVP Huntington Beach Open

HUNTINGTON BEACH >> Under normal circumstances, the stress involved in chasing a berth in the Olympic Games can test the upper limits of an athlete’s blood pressure.

And nothing was normal for Newport Beach’s April Ross in her year-plus run to this summer’s Rio de Janeiro Games.

The beach volleyball star had to deal with an injury to her partner, three-time Olympic gold medalist Kerri Walsh Jeings. The latter missed several qualifying touaments and played others essentially one-armed because of a right shoulder injury.

Then there was waiting in the fall after Walsh Jeings had surgery to repair a to labrum, and the rigors of prepping for a new season.

“I didn’t know how things would go, and wasn’t sure how her shoulder would hold up in competition,” Ross said this week while preparing for the AVP Huntington Beach Open, where main draw play begins Friday near the iconic pier. “I believed we could do it, because we trained so hard.”

It worked out. Ross, the former Newport Harbor High and USC standout, and Walsh Jeings secured podium finishes during the first four FIVB touaments this season, wiing twice and finishing second and third in the others, to secure one of the two U.S. spots for the Rio Olympics.

They rank sixth in Olympic qualifying with a comfortable edge on the other two teams competing for the remaining U.S. spot. They’ll meet the qualifying standard of competing in a 12th qualifying touey when they play in the FIVB event in Cinciati on May 17-22.

Ross, who tus 33 next month, found the jouey almost as exhilarating as it was onerous.

“There’s kind of a magic feeling when you have to give everything to compensate for what could happen,” she said. “There was a lot of uncertainty, but we came out of the gate raring to go and willing to do whatever it took.”

Ross did so much in 2015 that the season cast her in a shiny brighter light as one of the premier players in the sport.

After a dominant 2014, Walsh Jeings’ shoulder program began early in 2015. Ross twice played with a different partner in FIVB events while Walsh Jeings, 37, met with doctors. When Walsh Jeings retued she had limited use of her right arm, and the pair gutted out a second-place finish in Long Beach, plus two fifths and a ninth in the last four FIVB qualifying events of 2015.

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Meanwhile, Ross played in five events on the AVP’s domestic tour, wiing four with three different partners, an AVP record. She played events last season with Whitney Pavlik, Jeifer Fopma and Lauren Fendrick, in addition to Walsh Jeings.

“I want to be the best player I can be,” she said. “That’s my goal. The fact that someone would consider me to be the best is very flattering. When I’m 100 percent, I feel like I can make a good argument for that.

“Right now, I’m just focused on doing what I need to do for us to reach our goal.”

Ross and Walsh Jeings are the top seed in Huntington, just ahead of Kim DiCello and Kendra VanZwieten, who won the first AVP event of the season in New Orleans. The team of Angela Bensend and Los Alamitos’ Geena Urango, ruers-up in New Orleans, is seeded fifth.

Two top teams will miss Huntington as they compete in the FIVB event in Sochi, Russia in pursuit of the other U.S. Olympic spot. Lauren Fendrick and Brooke Sweat are currently ranked 13th and hold a provisional spot, but San Juan Capistrano’s Jen Kessy and Emily Day are 16th and still within reach of the berth.

The two men’s teams that have eaed Olympic bids, Huntington Beach residents Jake Gibb and Casey Patterson and Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena, are seeded second and third this week behind Ryan Doherty and John Mayer, who won in New Orleans.

Gibb and Patterson had a solid 2015 on the FIVB circuit and eaed notable Olympic qualifying points in five events this year to rank fifth. Dalhausser and Lucena, who didn’t become partners until late last season, posted three wins and a second-place finish in five FIVB events this spring to rank seventh.

Ross and Walsh Jeings play their first match Friday at 12:45 p.m. On the men’s side, Gibb and Patterson play at 9:30 a.m., Lucena and Dalhausser at 10:30 a.m. and Doherty and Mayer at 12:50 p.m.