Two U.S. Men's Beach Teams Advance to Semis

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

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (July 31, 2010) – The U.S. men’s beach volleyball teams of Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers and also Matt Fuerbringer and Nick Lucena have advanced to the semifinals of the FIVB World Tour A1 Grand Slam 10 in Klagenfurt, Austria after each team won two matches on Saturday.

Top-seeded Dalhausser (Ormond Beach, Fla.) and Rogers (Santa Barbara, Calif.) will face third-seeded Alison Cerutti and Emanuel Rego of Brazil in Sunday’s second semifinal while Fuerbringer (Costa Mesa, Calif.) and Lucena (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.), the 12th seeds, will play Brazil’s seventh-seeded Marcio Araujo and Ricardo Santos in the first semi.

The medal matches will also be played on Sunday.

To reach the semifinals, Fuerbringer and Lucena posted wins on Saturday over fourth-seeded Pedro Cunha and Thiago Santos Barbosa of Brazil, 18-21, 21-19, 15-11 in 64 minutes and sixth-seeded Grzegorz Fijalek and Mariusz Prudel of Poland 21-18, 21-15 in 39 minutes.

While Fuerbringer has competed in two previous SWATCH FIVB World Tour “final fours” with Casey Jennings (Las Vegas, Nev.) at stops in Croatia (2008 Zagreb bronze) and Poland (2009 Myslowice silver), Lucena will be playing in his first semi-final since starting playing full-time on the international circuit in 2009. His best previous placements were fifths this season in Norway and Switzerland with Fuerbringer.

The defending A1 Beach Volleyball Grand Slam champions, Dalhausser and Rogers eliminated 15th-seeded Reinder Nummerdor and Richard Schuil of Netherlands 21-18, 21-19 in 45 minutes and fifth-seeded Adrian Gavira and Pablo Herrera of Spain 25-23, 21-16 in 45 minutes.

Their victory over Nummerdor and Schuil was Dalhausser and Rogers' 500th win as a team.

The Americans, who also won a 2006 Klagenfurt title, have now advanced to nine straight FIVB semifinals this season with five gold medals to lead the SWATCH FIVB World Tour points standings with 5,790 points and $259,100 in winnings.

While Fuerbringer and Lucena will be playing Marcio Araujo and Ricardo for the first-time, Dalhausser and Rogers will be facing Alison and Emanuel for the sixth time this season with the United States holding a 4-1 edge. Three of the meetings have been for SWATCH FIVB World Tour gold medals with Dalhausser and Rogers winning each time in Brasilia, Rome and Prague.

The 16th-ranked U.S. men’s team of Jake Gibb (Bountiful, Utah) and Sean Rosenthal (Redondo Beach, Calif.) advanced to the third round on Saturday after defeating China’s second-seeded Penggen Wu and Linyin Xu, 2- 1 (21-15, 17-21, 15-9) in 53 minutes. But they didn’t get any farther, falling to Marcio and Ricardo, 2-1 (21-17, 11-21, 15-8) in 50 minutes.

For more information on the FIVB World Tour A1 Grand Slam 10, click here.

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