Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser are back in the finals at the FIVB World Tour Brasilia Open in Brazil’s capital city.
Santa Barbara’s pro beach volleyball professionals defeated second-seeded Marcio Araujo-Ricardo Santos of Brazil in straight sets, 21-17, 21-13 in Friday’s semifinals.
Their record 28th-straight tour win puts the top seeds and defending tournament champions in a rematch with Brazilians Emanuel Rego and Alison Cerutti for the title on Saturday. Emanuel-Alison beat the Chinese team of Penggen Wu-Linyin Xu, 21-16, 21-16 in the other semifinal match.
Rest proved to the difference for the unbeaten Rogers-Dalhausser in the semifinals. Marcio-Ricardo had to beat Americans Nick Lucena and Matt Fuerbringer in a three-set, 56-minute match earlier in the day in the contender’s bracket.
“It is hot, very hot. I think that affected them (Ricardo and Márcio Araujo) more than us, because they played a game earlier today,” Rogers told the FIVB. “I think that made the difference. We were tired, but we had more energy. They were dying.
“The strategy was just make them work really hard to get every point,” Rogers added. “They had a lot of chances, but so did we. They did not convert, we converted more.”
The final against Emanuel-Alison will be a rematch of last year’s final and a quarterfinal meeting on Thursday. The Americans have a 7-1 advantage in their meetings with this Brazilian duo.
“We have played Alison and Emanuel a lot of times. They know us and we know them. Either way, it’s going to be hot. It will be a hard game tomorrow, but it should be fun,” said Rogers.
Rogers-Dalhausser are seeking their 18th FIVB gold medal together in 38 events. They won a record nine golds last season.
Emmanuel will be playing in his 100th career FIVB gold medal match — he has won 69.
In Friday’s women’s gold medal match, Brazil’s Juliana Felisberta Silva defeated the reunited Misty May-Treanor-Kerri Walsh, 21-16, 15-21 and 15-12.
It was the 15th meeting between the two most prominent women’s teams in beach volleybal. May Treanor-Walsh still have an 11-4 edge in the series, 8-4 in gold medal matches.
Juliana-Larissa shared the $30,000 first-place prize while May-Treanor/Walsh took home the $21,000 second-place prize and the their 10th career FIVB silver medal together and 53rd total medal.
In the all-American bronze medal match, eighth-seeded reigning FIVB Swatch World Champions Jennifer Kessy-April Ross defeated 22nd-seeded qualifier team Lauren Fendrick-Brooke Hanson, 25-23 and 21-19 in 49 minutes.
For Hanson, a former UCSB star, it was her biggest payday on the tour. She and Fendrick split $11,200. Kessy/Ross split $15,000.
