Traveling all over the world to play in pro beach volleyball tournaments is starting to look like a trip down to Santa Barbara’s East Beach for Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser.
The local pair won its third Swatch-FIVB World Tour event on Sunday, beating Spain’s Adrian Gavira and Pablo Herrera in the final at the $190,000 Myslowice Open in Poland. Rogers and Dalhausser needed just over 36 minutes to post a 21-15, 21-13 championship victory. The win avenged a fourth-round loss to the Spaniards and earned them a total prize of $30,000.
“We have found our comfort zone with all the travel and are playing pretty consistently most of the time,” Rogers told reporters. “The Swatch tour has a lot of great teams, so consistent play is a must.”
The 2008 Olympic champions have won three of the four international events on the schedule (Brasilia, Brazil and Rome, Italy are the other titles) and both domestic AVP Tour events that have been played thus far (Fort Lauderdale and Santa Barbara). They’ll return to the AVP Tour this weekend at Huntington Beach.
“With fewer events on our domestic tour this season, we are playing more internationally this season,” said Rogers, who has now won 11 Swatch FIVB World gold medals, including 10 with Dalhausser. Their only non-podium finish this year is a fourth in Shanghai, China.
After losing to Gavira-Herrera in the quarterfinals on Friday, Rogers-Dalhausser bounced back and defeated a tough Poland team of Grzegorz Fijalek and Mariusz Prudel, 23-21, 21-19, and rallied to beat Germany’s Julias Brink and Jonas Reckermann, 15-21, 21-11, 15-9, in the semifinals on Saturday.
In the bronze medal match, second-seeded Brink and Reckermann posted a 21-18 and 21-14 win in 44 minutes over fifth-seeded Alison Cerutti and Emanuel Rego of Brazil.
Brazil’s Juliana Felisberta Silva and Larissa Franca won this week’s women’s gold medal match in South Korea by defeating Americans Angie Akers and Tyra Turner in the Seoul finale, 21-11, 21-15. Jen Kessy and April Ross took the bronze.
The Swatch-FIVB Tour resumes June 7-14 with a Grand Slam double gender event in Moscow.
