Dalhausser, Rogers Find Way to Another Final

B.J. Hoeptner Evans
Manager, Media Relations and Publications
Phone: (719) 228-6800
E-Mail: bj.evans@usav.org

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (June 19, 2010) – The U.S. men’s beach volleyball team of Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers will play in its fourth straight SWATCH FIVB World Tour gold medal match on Sunday when it takes on Brazilians Alison Cerutti and Emanuel Rego at the US$190,000 Patria Direct Open.

Dalhausser (Ormond Beach, Fla.) and Rogers (Santa Barbara, Calif.), the tournament’s top-ranked team, had to fight their way through the consolation bracket to reach the gold medal match after losing to their U.S. rivals Jake Gibb (Costa Mesa, Calif.) and Sean Rosenthal (Corona Del Mar, Calif.) in the second round.

On Saturday, Dalhausser and Rogers eliminated the 17th-seeded Gibb and Rosenthal, who had also fallen to the consolation bracket after losing to fifth-seeded Penngen Wu and Linyin Xu of China in the fourth round on Friday. Gibb and Rosenthal finish the tournament tied for fifth after losing to Dalhausser and Rogers, 2-1 (21-14, 18-21, 15-8) in 1 hour.

Dalhausser and Rogers moved on to win the semifinal match over Germany’s third-seeded Julius Brink and Jonas Reckermann, 21-16, 21-14 in 46 minutes.

Dalhausser and Rogers opened play Saturday with a 17-21, 23-21, 15-13 win in 58 minutes over fourth-seeded Adrian Gavira and Pablo Herrera of Spain.

The Patria Direct Open medal matches will be played Sunday afternoon with the bronze medal match featuring Brink and Reckermann against Wu and Xu followed by Dalhausser and Rogers against the second-seeded Alison and Emanuel at the Štvanice Stadium center court on the River Vitava. Sunday’s gold medal team will share a $30,000 first-place prize.

Dalhausser and Rogers will be playing Alison and Emanuel for the fourth-time this season with the Americans winning two-set gold medal matches in Brazil and Italy and losing a three-set bronze medal contest in Shanghai.

Following the Patria Direct Open, the SWATCH FIVB World Tour takes a week off before resuming double-gender competition on June 28 in Norway for the $600,000 ConocoPhillips Grand Slam. The Stavanger finals are set July 3 for women and July 4 for men.

For more information about the FIVB World Tour event in Brazil, visit the SWATCH FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour web site.

Tags: Beach, Beach Volleyball, FIVB beach, FIVB World Tour, Jake Gibb, Phil Dalhausser, Sean Rosenthal, Todd Rogers