Press Release

STARE JABLONKI, POLAND, July 24, 2004 - Norway's Jorre Kjemperud and Vegard Hoidalen scored their third-straight win of the competition here Saturday morning in the US$180,000 Mazury Open, presented by the Hotel Anders, to advance to within on victory of earning their second "final four" appearance of the 2004 SWATCH-FIVB World Tour.

With their opening morning win, the Norwegians challenge top-seeded Patrick Heuscher and Stefan Kobel of Switzerland later Saturday afternoon with the winner advancing to Sunday's first-semi-final match. The loser will still have an opportunity to gain a "final four" berth in one of Saturday's final elimination matches.

Kjemperud and Hoidalen, who have not finished higher than 13th in their last five SWATCH-FIVB World Tour events, scored a 21-12 and 21-16 win over 13th-seeded to Pedro Cunha and Para Ferreira of Brazil to open play Saturday.

Heuscher and Kobel posted a 21-13 and 21-16 win over 24th-seeded Julius Brink and Kjell Schneider of Germany for their first win Saturday. The Swiss have won three-straight matches over Kjemperud and Hoidalen since the start of the 2002 season, including a 21-14, 19-21 and 15-11 victory at May's event in Serbia and Montenegro.

Third-seeded Benjamin Insfran and Marcio Araujo and seventh-seeded Franco Neto and Tande Ramos also won their opening matches Saturday to face each other for the second-straight week with a semi-final berth awaiting the winner.

Benjamin and Marcio Araujo, who scored a 21-14, 13-21 and 15-13 win over Franco and Tande last week in France, advanced with a 19-21, 21-18 and 15-12 win over 11th-seeded Andrew Schacht and Joshua Slack of Australia. France and Tande, who also lost to their Brazilian rivals earlier this season in Switzerland, posted a 21-14, 16-21 and 15-13 over Francisco Alvarez and Juan Rossell of Cuba.

The 12th men's stop on the 2004 SWATCH-FIVB World Tour continues through Sunday when the final two teams compete for the $27,000 first-place prize. The sixth mixed-gender event of the season will be held next week in Klagenfurt, Austria before halting SWATCH play most of August for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.