May-Treanor, Walsh Secure Silver in Finland

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

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Aug. 20, 2011) – The U.S. women’s beach volleyball team of Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh earned the silver medal on Saturday at the 2011 FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour Paf Open in Aland, Finland.

Meanwhile, the U.S. men’s team of Phil Dalhausser (Ormond Beach, Fla.) and Todd Rogers (Santa Barbara, Calif.) advanced to Sunday’s gold medal match.

The fourth-ranked May-Treanor (Santa Monica, Calif.) and Walsh (San Jose, Calif.) fell to China’s second-seeded Chen Xue and Xi Zhang in Saturday’s gold medal match, 21-16, 17-21, 15-9 in 43 minutes.

In the bronze medal match, top seeded  Juliana Silva and Larissa Franca of Brazil defeated compatriots Talita Antunes and Maria Antonelli, 21-19, 18-21, 21-19 in 56 minutes.

The top-seeded men’s team of Dalhausser and Rogers will face Brazil’s fifth-seeded Marcio Araujo and Benjamin Insfran in Sunday’s men’s gold medal match.

Dalhausser and Rogers advanced by defeating Poland’s third-seeded Grzegorz Fijalek and Mariusz Prudel in the semifinals on Saturday, 21-19, 18-21, 15-12 in 1 hour.

Araujo and Insfran advanced with a 21-18, 21-15 victory on Saturday over compatriots Emanuel Rego and Alison Cerutti, seeded second.

A total of 165 teams, 95 men and 70 women, started out competing in the 2011 Paf Open that is taking place on the Isle of Aland at Mariehamn under the supervision of both the Finnish and Swedish Volleyball Foundation, marking just the third time that national federations have joined forces to stage an FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour event.

For more information about the tournament, click here.

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