May-Treanor, Walsh Golden Again; Win in Moscow

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

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (July 16, 2011) – Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh on Saturday won their second gold medal of the 2011 season on Saturday as they defeated Brazil’s Juliana Felisberta and Larissa Franca, 23-21 21-15 in 39 minutes at the 2011 FIVB Swatch Moscow Grand Slam in Russia.

Meanwhile, the U.S. team of Phil Dalhausser (Ormond Beach, Fla.) and Todd Rogers (Santa Barbara, Calif.), ranked fourth, has advanced to the semifinals of the men’s bracket where they will play Switzerland’s 12th-ranked Patrick Heuscher and Jefferson Bellaguarda on Sunday.

The winner of the semifinal match between Dalhausser/Rogers and Heuscher/Bellaguarda will face the winner of the semifinals between top-seeded Alison Cerutti and Emanuel Rego and seventh-ranked Penggen Wu and Linyin Xu from China in Sunday’s gold medal match.

May-Treanor (Santa Monica, Calif.) and Walsh (San Jose, Calif.), who last won gold at the Beijing Grand Slam at the beginning of June, won their 37st FIVB World Tour title on Saturday after 67 FIVB tournaments. It was their first gold medal in Moscow.

Juliana and Larissa had won the last three meetings with May-Treanor and Wash, including the 2009 World Championship final one month ago in Rome.

“We did not want to lose again,” Walsh said. “A couple of consecutive losses is a great motivation. Also we had not won a gold medal for some time.”

Walsh did not expect that the difference in the second set would be as great as it was.

“I think they were tired, having played almost every final in the last few weeks. Also it was pretty windy and we used that to our advantage.”

Juliana and Larissa started out well on a packed centre court. They were three points ahead until May-Treanor and Walsh came back to 19-19 and finished it off on their second set point (23-21). In the second and final set, the Brazilians never got back into the match and trailed by three points through most of the set.

The Americans, earned $43,500 and 800 points and improved their head-to-head results against the Brazilians to 12-6. Juliana and Larissa take home $29,500 and 720 points for the World Tour ranking.

May-Treanor and Walsh advanced by beating Italy’s Greta Cicolari and Marta Menegatti in Saturday’s semifinals, 21-15 21-16. The United States took revenge for its 2-0 loss last week to the Italians in the semifinals of the Gstaad Grand Slam, where Cicolari/Menegatti won bronze.

“This week we did not play so well against Kerri and Misty, we were tired. It was very hot,” Cicolari said.

The 20-year old Menegatti needed a medical timeout at the end of the second set, suffering from a heatstroke.

China’s Chen Xue and Xi Zhang finished third winning the bronze medal match against Cicolari and Menegatti, 21-17 22-24 15-9.

In the men’s second round, Dalhausser and Rogers had a slow start on centre court against Germany’s Jonathan Erdmann and Kay Matysik, seeded 14th.

Coming back from a seven-point deficit, they took the first set in 26-24, lost the second (18-21) and won the third in 15-8. In the quarterfinal Dalhausser and Rogers defeated fifth-seeded Grzegorz Fijalek and Mariusz Prudel of Poland, 23-21 21-18 in 43 minutes.

Next week the FIVB Swatch Beach Volleyball World Tour travels to Canada for the double gender $380,000 Quebec Open. The following week the circuit returns to Europe for the final two of six grand slams on the 2011 calendar: Stare Jablonski, Poland (July 25-31) and Klagenfurt, Austria (August 1-7).

For more information on the 2011 FIVB Swatch World Tour, visit the FIVB web site.

Tags: Beach, Beach Volleyball, FIVB World Tour, Kerri Walsh, Misty May-Treanor, mobile, Phil Dalhausser, Todd Rogers