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AVP schedule set

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Costa Mesa residents Jake Gibb and April Ross will attempt to regain their dominance on the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals tour when it begins its seven-event schedule in May.

Gibb, with partner Casey Patterson, won four of seven AVP men’s events and finished third in the other three tournaments in 2013, when the two-time Olympian was named AVP MVP, Team of the Year (with Patterson) and the Male Beach Athlete of the Year by USA Volleyball.

Ross, an Olympic silver medalist in 2012, earned three AVP titles last season and three third-place finishes with a pair of partners in 2013. She was named USA Female Beach Athlete of the Year in 2013.

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Ross, who played primarily with Jennifer Kessy last year, but won one AVP event with three-time Olympic gold medalist Kerri Walsh Jennings, is expected to play this season with Walsh Jennings, the all-time women’s leader in beach tournament titles who played formerly with the now-retired Misty May-Treanor.

The AVP season culminates at the Huntington Beach Pier, Sept. 25-28, and makes its other Southern California stop in Manhattan Beach on Aug. 15-17.

The tour opens in St. Petersburg, Fla. on May 29 through June 1, then heads to Milwaukee July 3-6.

Salt Lake City will host an event Aug. 7-10, with Cincinnati (Aug. 28-31) and Atlantic City (Sept. 5-7) rounding out the schedule.

Six of the seven venues are the same as last season, with Milwaukee replacing Santa Barbara.

The AVP is owned by Newport Beach resident Donald Sun.

— Barry Faulkner

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