U.S. Gets Three Women's Teams in Medal Matches

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

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (April 21, 2011) – The United States will have three women’s beach volleyball teams competing in the medal matches of the Brasilia Open on Friday while the U.S. team of Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers advanced to the men’s semifinals during play on Thursday.

The U.S. men’s team of Matt Fuerbringer (Costa Mesa, Calif.) and Nick Lucena (Santa Barbara, Calif.) is also still alive in consolation of the opening event of the 2011 SWATCH FIVB World Tour.

In a showdown that many beach volleyball fans were hoping for, the United States’ seventh-seeded Misty May-Treanor (Santa Monica, Calif.) and Kerri Walsh (San Jose, Calif.) will play Brazil’s top-ranked Juliana Felisberta Silva and Larissa Franca in Friday’s gold medal match.

This will be the 15th meeting on the FIVB World Tour between the two most prominent women’s teams in beach volleyball and 12th time in a gold medal match. May-Treanor and Walsh have an 11-3 edge in the series, 8-3 in finals. As a team, Juliana and Larissa have 36 career FIVB gold medals while May-Treanor and Walsh have 35. The Brazilians are in their 71st final four in 85 events together and the Americans are in their 53rd final four in 60 events together.

The teams last played each other in September of 2009 when May-Treanor and Walsh, the two-time Olympic gold medalists, reunited for a challenge tournament between the two countries organized by the now-suspended AVP. Juliana and Larissa won that match, 21-11, 21-16. Juliana and Larissa are the two-time defending champions in Brazil, but May-Treanor and Walsh have won in Brazil four times, including 2003 FIVB World Championships.

"I’m sure they (Juliana/Larissa) will not come onto the court thinking about how many times we have beaten them," Walsh told the FIVB after her team’s semifinal win. "They have dominated the FIVB SWATCH World Tour for years and we respect that. But our goal is to reach the top again. For that, we know that we have to beat Juliana and Larissa."

May-Treanor and Walsh advanced from the semifinals on Thursday with a 21-15, 21-18 victory in 30 minutes over their compatriots Lauren Fendrick (Carlsbad, Calif.) and Brooke Hanson (Woodland Hills, Calif.), who made it to the semifinals after having to start the tournament in Monday’s country quota round.

Fendrick and Hanson will play the eighth-seeded U.S. team of Jen Kessy (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) and April Ross (Costa Mesa, Calif.) in Friday’s bronze medal match. Juliana and Larissa defeated Kessy and Ross in the semifinals, 21-19, 23-21 in 46 minutes.

Both Fendrick/Hanson and Kessy/Ross had to win two consolation matches on Thursday just to get to the semifinals.

Fendrick and Hanson won two, three-set, come-from-behind matches, defeating China’s second-ranked Chen Xue and Xi Zhang, 18-21, 21-19, 15-10 in 51 minutes, then taking down Germany’s fourth-ranked Sara Goller and Laura Ludwig, 16-21, 21-17, 19-17 in 57 minutes.

Kessy and Ross beat Austria’s sixth-seeded Doris and Stefanie Schwaiger, 25-23, 21-19 in 48 minutes, then defeated Brazil’s third-ranked Maria Antonelli and Talita Antunes, 21-16, 21-15 in 39 minutes.

In the men’s bracket, Dalhausser (Ormond Beach, Fla.) and Rogers (Santa Barbara, Calif.) also won two, come-from-behind, three-set matches on Thursday to make it to the semifinals.

The pair first beat Spain’s ninth-ranked Adrian Gavira Collado and Pablo Herrera in the third round, 13-21, 21-17, 15-7 in 53 minutes. Dalhausser and Rogers topped Brazil’s fifth-seeded Alison Cerutti and Emanuel Rego in the fourth round, 16-21, 21-19, 15-11 in 53 minutes.

"After the first set I wasn’t sure we would win because Emanuel and Alison were playing very well," Dalhausser told the FIVB. "If I had to use only one word to describe the match, it would be tough.

"The weather in Brasilia is much different from Southern California where we live and train, mainly with the high humidity, but we must adapt ourselves quickly to all conditions around the world. We felt Alison was a little tired in the third set so we focused on serving him. Fortunately, it was the right decision."

China’s 10th-ranked Penggen Wu and Linyin Xu will play in the other semifinal match. Both teams must wait for Friday’s consolation matches to find out whom they will play.

Among those still in contention are the fourth-seeded U.S. team of Matt Fuerbringer (Costa Mesa, Calif.) and Nick Lucena (Santa Barbara, Calif.), which lost in the third round to Alison and Emanuel, 16-21, 21-13, 15-13 in 52 minutes, but came back in consolation to beat Russia’s 24th-ranked Serguei Prokopiev and Konstantin Semenov, 21-12, 21-23, 18-16 in 1 hour.

Fuerbringer and Lucena will play Italy’s 28th-ranked Daniele Lupo and Paolo Nicolai on Friday. The winner will play Brazil’s third-ranked Marcio Araujo and Ricardo Santos for a trip to the semis.

The U.S. team of Casey Patterson (Van Nuys, Calif.) and Brad Keenan (Westminster, Calif.), ranked 26th, won its first consolation match on Thursday, but lost its second, 21-14, 22-20 in 36 minutes to Brazil’s 11th-seeded Benjamin Insfran and Bruno Oscar Schmidt. Keenan and Patterson will tie for ninth.

The sixth-ranked team of Jake Gibb (Bountiful, Utah) and Sean Rosenthal (Redondo Beach, Calif.) finished tied for 17th after losing their second match on Thursday, 21-19, 22-20 in 45 minutes.

Complete information about the FIVB World Tour is available on the FIVB web site.

UniversalSports.com will show the women’s gold medal match live from Brasilia at 9:45 a.m. ET on Friday.

 

Tags: April Ross, Beach, Beach Volleyball, Brad Keenan, Brooke Hanson, Casey Patterson, FIVB beach, FIVB World Tour, Jennifer Kessy, Kerri Walsh, Lauren Fendrick, Matt Fuerbringer, Misty May-Treanor, Nick Lucena, Phil Dalhausser