Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser survived an epic 40-38 game in the semifinals and advanced to their third straight gold medal match on the FIVB World Tour this season.
The top-seeded Rogers-Dalhausser outlasted Brazil’s Pedro Cunha-Pedro Salgado in a marathon semifinal, 40-38, 21-19, at the FIVB Prague Open in the Czech Republic to extend their tour-record unbeaten streak to 40 matches going back to last season.
They are attempting to go 3-for-3 in tournaments this year and extend their record title streak to eight in a row on the world tour.
In the 40-38 win, Rogers-Dahausser had 13 set points. Brazil failed at seven set points.
“The first game was a battle,” Rogers told Presidiosports in an email. “They had a 5-2 lead to start the game and I think that was the biggest lead of the match. Each team had a swing or two for the game and i had one to sideout at 20-19 but hit it out. The last point was off phil’s block. I set him and he put it away.
“The second game was pretty much the same as the first. I sided out first time at 20-19 this time.”
The win is not the highest-scoring game Rogers-Dalhausser have played on tour. Last August, they lost a 41-39 game to Brazil’s Marcio Araujo-Ricardo Santos at the Stare Jablonki Grand Slam in Poland.
Rogers-Dalhausser will face rivals Emanuel Rego and Alison Cerutti of Brazil in the gold-medal match on Sunday. The local pro beach volleyball stars beat the Brazilians for gold in the season-opening event in Brasilia, Brazil last month. They are 5-0 against them in finals and 8-1 in all meetings.
The second-seeded Rego-Alison advanced to the Prague final by beating SaschaHeyer-Sebastian Chevallier of Switzerland, 21-10, 21-14.
