Phil Dalhausser (L) and Nick Lucena celebrate winning gold at the 2017 Gstaad Major on July 9, 2017 in Gstaad, Switzerland.
2008 Olympic champion Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena capped off the Gstaad Major on Sunday with straight-sets wins in their semifinal and gold-medal match to win the FIVB Beach Volleyball 5-Star World Tour event in Gstaad, Switzerland.
Dalhausser and Lucena, who have been playing together since August 2015 after first competing together in 2005, earned a 21-18, 21-19 straight sets win over the Polish duo of Piotr Kantor and Bartosz Losiak to win the gold medal. They finished the tournament with straight-set wins in all seven of their matches, with none lasting longer than 48 minutes.
The 6-foot-9 Dalhausser, who was born in Switzerland, made four key blocks during the 40-minute sweep of the Poles in the final. Dalhausser, nicknamed “The Thin Beast,” and the 6-foot-1 Lucena, a Florida native nicknamed “The Greyhound,” opened up a big lead in the second set and held off a late rally by the Polish team.
Dalhausser and Lucena entered the final as the No. 3 seed. They finished second at the Gstaad Major last year. The victory marked the third overall in Gstaad for Dalhausser, who won a world title there in 2007 with Olympic gold-medal-winning teammate Todd Rogers.
Dalhausser and Lucena advanced to the finals with after overcoming Loyola Stein and Evandro Goncalves Oliveria Jr. in the Sunday morning semifinals by scores of 21-12, 21-18. The U.S. duo lost to Goncalves and then-partner Pedro Solberg Salgado in the Gstaad final last year.
Gary R. Blockus is a journalist from Allentown, Pennsylvania who has covered multiple Olympic Games. He is a freelance contributor to TeamUSA.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.
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