Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser are back in another final four on the FIVB World Tour.
The local pro beach volleyball stars and reigning world tour and Olympic champions beat fellow Americans Nick Lucena and Matt Fuerbringer in three sets Friday at the Shanghai Jinshan Open. The 21-15, 19-21, 15-9 win extended their 2011 tour winning streak to 10-0.
Meanwhile, former UCSB star Brooke Hanson and partner Laurie Fendrick continued their magical run in Shanghai. After upsetting the No. 1 team from Brazil on Thursday, they knocked off ninth-seeded Huang Ying-Yue Yuan of China, 21-18, 21-15 on Friday. Counting their qualifying matches, Hanson-Fendrick have won five straight in the tournament.
The American tandem will meet Austrian sisters Doris and Stefanie Schwaiger on Saturday morning to vie for a ticket to the women’s semifinals.
Dalhausser was playing against his former partner, Lucena.
“It’s a tough match, I am glad that we won it at the end,” Dalhausser told FIVB.org.
Eleventh seeded Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal of the United States also improved to a 4-0 record at the Shanghai Open and made it to the semifinals after beating Spain’s seventh seeds Pablo Herrera and Adrian Gavira Collado 21-18, 18-21 and 15-9 in the other winners’ bracket match on Friday.
“It’s a great win to us, it’s very meaningful, we are very happy,” Gibb told FIVB.org after securing a World Tour top four place with Rosenthal for the first time since the Myslowice Open in May 2009. “We just want to win our next match, that’s a big match for us to get into the final. We have not been to a final for a couple of years, so we are excited.”
“It’s been a big weekend for USA. It’s fun to have all the other Americans playing very well and we are pushing each other,” he added.
Herrera/Gavira rebounded to beat Chinese duo Wu Penggen/Xu Linyin in a lower bracket match on Friday to set up a semifinal clash with Rogers/Dalhausser.
The other ticket for the men’s Top Four went to Germany’s third seeds Julius Brink/Jonas Reckermann, who eliminated Lucena-Fuerbringer 29-27 and 21-14 in the last round play in the lower bracket.
