
Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena continued their impressive run of late with a 2-0 gold-medal win over the Canadian duo of Sam Pedlow and Sam Schachter at the USA-vs.-the-world-format Long Beach Presidents Cup Sunday in Long Beach, California.
The Americans jumped out to a 12-3 lead and went on to win the first set 21-18.
The Canadians pulled to within three points midway through the second set before the U.S. edged ahead, and at match point, Pedlow blocked a shot down the line to stay in it.
Pedlow’s serve sailed long, however, on the next point and the U.S. took the second set 21-15 to close out the win.
This was the 90th career win for Dalhausser and the 19th for Lucena, who went undefeated in the tournament. It’s also their second victory in a row after going undefeated in seven matches at the Gstaad Major, a five-star FIVB World Tour event, last week.
Earlier in the day, Dalhausser and Lucena faced fellow Americans Theo Brunner and Casey Patterson in the semifinals. Dalhausser and Lucena won 2-0 (21-11, 21-19). Brunner and Patterson then fell to Poland’s Piotr Kantor and Bartosz Losiak 2-1 (20-22, 21-15, 15-13) in the bronze-medal match.
Karen Price is a reporter from Pittsburgh who has covered Olympic sports for various publications. She is a freelance contributor to TeamUSA.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.