Barbra Fontana

Barbra Fontana Harris
portrait
birthday	September 8, 1965
place of birth	Manhattan Beach, United States
size	1.68 m
Partner	1993–1995 Lori Forsythe 1996–1998 Linda Hanley 1999–2000 Lisa Arce 2001 Elaine Youngs 2002 Dianne DeNecochea 2003–2004 Jennifer Kessy 2007–2008 Dianne DeNecochea
successes
1996 - Olympic fourth
(As of August 1, 2011)

Barbra Fontana Harris (born September 8, 1965 in Manhattan Beach ) is a former American beach volleyball player .

Career

Fontana studied at Stanford University and played her first beach volleyball tournaments back in 1984 while she was a student. In 1993 she formed a duo with Lori Forsythe and in the following year she made her first appearances at FIVB tournaments, where she was third in the Goodwill Games in Saint Petersburg and won the Open tournament in Osaka . From 1996 she played with Linda Hanley and achieved several fourth places. At the Olympic tournament in Atlanta, Fontana / Hanley lost to the Australians Natalie Cook and Kerri Pottharst in the duel for bronze . In 1997 they remained in the top ten international tournaments and reached the finals four times on the national tour. However, they failed at the World Cup in Los Angeles in front of their own audience in the quarter-finals to the Brazilians Adriana Behar and Shelda Bede . In 1998 there were three fourth places in the Open series and one tournament victory in Espinho .

With her new partner Lisa Arce , Fontana only came 17th at the 1999 World Cup in Marseille , although the two US-Americans continued to achieve top places in other tournaments until 2000. In 2001 Fontana competed with Elaine Youngs and won the Open tournament in Cagliari and the Grand Slam in Marseille . At the World Championships in Klagenfurt she just missed a medal when she was fourth because of the defeat against the Czechs Celbová / Nováková . In addition, she completed the AVP tour as the best-placed player. In 2002 she played with Dianne DeNecochea and got three times in the finals of AVP tournaments, while she was fifth twice in FIVB tournaments. She then took a break because of her pregnancy .

In 2003 she returned at the side of Jennifer Kessy , with whom she played four AVP semifinals the following year. In 2005 she paused again because of the birth of her second son. After playing with various partners in 2006, she formed a duo again with her former teammate DeNecochea in 2007, who was active on the AVP tour until 2008.

Web links

• Profile at FIVB (English)
• Profile in the Beach Volleyball Database (English)
• Barbra Fontana in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )