Dalhausser, Rogers Advance to Eighth FIVB Semifinal

B.J. Hoeptner Evans July 10, 2010

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Photo: FIVB

Brad Keenan celebrates during a match on July 10 in Gstaad, Switzerland.

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

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (July 10, 2010) – The U.S. men’s beach volleyball team of Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser has advanced to its eighth SWATCH FIVB World Tour semifinal in 2010 at the US$600,000 1to1 energy Grand Slam in Gstaad, Switzerland.

Rogers (Santa Barbara, Calif.) and Dalhausser (Ormond Beach, Fla.), the tournament’s top seeds who have won six FIVB medals this year, including four gold, will play Poland’s seventh-ranked Mariusz Prudel and Grzegorz Fijalek in Sunday’s second semifinal.

The winner will face the winner of the first semifinal match between Germany’s eighth-ranked Eric Koreng and David Klemperer and Brazil’s 1th-seeded Ricardo Santos and Marcio Araujo in Sunday’s gold medal match after the bronze medal match is played.

Rogers and Dalhausser advanced to the semifinals by defeating compatriots Jake Gibb (Bountiful, Utah) and Sean Rosenthal (Redondo Beach, Calif.) and, ranked 16th, in the third round, 2-1 (21-18, 16-21, 18-16) in 1 hour, 5 minutes. Gibb and Rosenthal had earlier defeated Rogers and Dalhausser in a pool play match, forcing Rogers and Dalhausser to play a first round match.

In their first match on Saturday, Rogers and Dalhausser beat New Zealand’s 24th-ranked Kirk Pitman and Jason Lochhead in the second round, 21-12, 21-16 in 41 minutes.

Prior to losing to Dalhausser and Rogers, Gibb and Rosenthal upset Brazil’s fifth-ranked Pedro Salgado and Harley Marques, 21-14, 21-18 in 43 minutes in their second-round match.

The U.S. men’s team of Matt Fuerbringer (Costa Mesa, Calif.) and Nick Lucena (Santa Barbara, Calif.), seeded 13th also advanced to the third round, upsetting Spain’s third-ranked Pablo Herrera and Adrian Gavira Collado, 21-15, 21-16 in 38 minutes.

However Fuerbringer and Lucena fell in their third-round match to Fijalek and Prudel, 21-14, 21-18 in 39 minutes.

More information is available on the SWATCH FIVB World Tour web site.

Medal rounds for the men's tournament will be shown at www.universalsports.com live at the following times:

July 11
Men's Bronze Match: 7:30 a.m. ET
Men's Gold Match: 9 a.m. ET

Tags: Beach, Beach Volleyball, Brad Keenan, Casey Jennings, FIVB World Tour, Jake Gibb, Matt Fuerbringer, Nick Lucena, Phil Dalhausser, Sean Rosenthal, Todd Rogers