Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser needed everything in their arsenal to get past American rivals Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal in three games Saturday to reach the semifinals at the FIVB World Tour Grand Slam beach volleyball tournament in Gstaad, Switzerland.
Rogers-Dalhausser survived and 65-minute battle, 21-18, 16-21, 18-16, avenging an earlier three-game loss to Gibb-Rosenthal. They earlier beat New Zealand’s Jason Lochhead and Kirk Pitman, 21-12, 21-16. Lochhead’s brother is Tony Lochhead, the former UCSB All-American, who played on New Zealand’s soccer team in the World Cup.
Rogers-Dalhausser advance to their 10th straight international final four since placing fifth at the Gstaad event in 2009. They’ll face Poland’s Gzegorz Fijalek and Mariusz Prudel, whom they beat in the quarterfinals in Poland three weeks ago. The Poles advanced by beating Americans Matt Fuerbringer and Nick Lucena 21-14, 21-18.
The other semifinal pits Brazil’s Marcio Araujo and Ricardo Santos against Germany’s David Klemperer and Eric Koreng.
Nice press release. Well crafted and thought invoking…