Dalhausser, Rogers Still the Best in Brazil

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

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (April 23, 2011) – The U.S. men’s beach volleyball team of Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers picked up Saturday where it left off in 2010, winning the Brasilia Open, the first event of the 2011 SWATCH FIVB World Tour.

The top-ranked Dalhausser (Ormond Beach, Fla.) and Rogers (Santa Barbara, Calif.) defeated Brazil’s fifth-seeded Alison Cerutti and Emanuel Rego in the gold medal match, 21-18, 21-13 in 35 minutes. The U.S. team won $30,000 for the victory.

It was the second time in the tournament that Rogers and Dalhausser defeated Alison and Emanuel. The first time came in the fourth round (16-21, 21-19, 15-11), sending the Brazilian pair to the consolation bracket.

Dalhausser and Rogers, the reigning Olympic champions, won nine gold medals on last year’s FIVB World Tour. The 2011 Brasilia Open marked their 38th event together on the international circuit. They have won 18 gold medals and played in 30 semifinal rounds.

Sunday’s finale was the 49th FIVB World Tour men’s gold medal match featuring Brazilian and American teams. With the victory, the United States now leads 25-24 in this gold medal rivalry.

With the standing-room-only crowd at the Brasília Open center court cheering feverishly to start the match, Rogers scored first for the United States and then the teams battled back and forth through 13 ties with the last one at 17-17 before Dalhausser scored two consecutive points on blocks of Alison. After a Brazil timeout, Dalhausser scored on a cross-court kill that went by Emanuel. Alison gave his team a point at 18 on a kill through Dalhausser’s block attempt and then Rogers finished the set on a slap shot to the right corner.

In the second set, Alison started with a kill off Rogers for a point, but then the Americans ran off five straight points on two Dalhausser blocks and three errors by the Brazilians, building up leads of 11-5, 13-6. After Alison and Emanuel closed the gap to 13-18, Dalhausser had a kill followed by a Rogers kill off Emanuel and ended the match on two more blocks by Dalhausser. Dalhausser had 11 blocks for points in the match, including eight in the second set.

"We love playing in Brazil, the fans are the best in the world and the Brazilian teams are the toughest to beat match in and match out," Rogers told the FIVB. "We played them two days ago in a match that turned out to be much closer, but they are a great team and they made more errors than we did and that turned out to be the difference."

In last year’s gold medal match in the Brasília Open, Alison and Emanuel lost to Dalhausser and Rogers, 21-16, 21-12 in 38 minutes.

In Saturday’s bronze medal match, China’s 10th-seeded Penggen Wu and Linyin Xu defeated Brazil’s third-ranked Marcio Araujo and Ricardo Santos, 21-17, 16-21, 15-10) in 48 minutes.

The FIVB World Tour resumes on April 26 with the Olympic Bay Sanya Open in China, a women's only event. The next dual gender tournament is the Shanghai China Jinshan Open on May 2-8.

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

Tags: Beach, Beach Volleyball, FIVB, FIVB World Tour, Phil Dalhausser, Todd Rogers