Membership
Deb Stadick
Intern, Communications
Phone: 719-228-6800
E-Mail: deb.stadick@usav.org
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (May 25, 2012) – The U.S. men’s beach volleyball team of Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers will compete Saturday in the semifinals of the Patria Direct Prague Open on the 2012 FIVB SWATCH World Tour.
Dalhausser (Ormond Beach, Fla.) and Rogers (Santa Barbara, Calif.) received the No. 1 seed going into Prague, and so far have not dropped a set in four matches. In their third-round match on Friday, they defeated Czech Republic’s Premysl Kubala and Petr Benes (No. 9) 21-13, 21-16 in 27 minutes. In the next round, Dalhausser and Rogers earned a victory over Latvia’s Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Ruslans Sorokins (No. 13) 22-20, 21-17 in 24 minutes. Dalhausser and Rogers lost to the Latvian team in Beijing earlier this season.
“They beat us pretty bad a few weeks ago in Beijing.” Rogers said in an FIVB press release. “So we are happy we took revenge today.”
Dalhausser and Rogers automatically advance to Saturday’s semifinal match. Their next opponent will depend upon the outcome of the first matches Saturday morning. After Friday’s play, the only other team locked into the semifinal round is Brazil’s Pedro Salgado and Marcio Argaujo (No. 6).
Dalhausser and Rogers are no strangers to semifinal matches. They have won 24 FIVB events and snagged silver or bronze in 15 events throughout their career together. So far on the 2012 FIVB SWATCH World Tour, they have claimed first place twice. At the Brasilia Open, they defeated U.S. teammates Matt Fuerbringer (Costa Mesa, Calif.) and Nick Lucena (Santa Barbara, Calif.), 21-17, 21-18 in 44 minutes to win the gold. In the finals of the Shanghai Grand Slam, they faced the U.S. team of Jake Gibb (Bountiful, Utah) and Sean Rosenthal (Redondo Beach, Calif.), winning 21-19, 24-22, 15-11 in 1 hour, 7 minutes to claim their second win of the World Tour.
Gibb and Rosenthal ended their run at Prague with a ninth-place finish. On Friday, they suffered a third round loss to Netherland’s Reinder Nummerdor and Richard Schuil (No. 2) 19-21, 18-21 in 39 minutes. In the next round, they lost a three-set heartbreaker to Brazil’s Alison Cerutti and Emanual Rego (No. 5), 19-21, 21-17, 19-17 in 55 minutes.