For the second straight week, Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser have reached the semifinals of a FIVB World Tour beach volleyball tournament.
The fourth-seeded local pros ousted Germany’s Jonathan Erdmann and Kay Matysik in the second round of single-elimination (26-24, 18-21, 15-8), then eliminated No. 5 Grzegorz Fijalek and Mariusz Prudel of Poland in the quarterfinals (23-21, 21-18) at the FIVB Grand Slam event in Moscow, Russia.
Rogers-Dalhausser face Jefferson Bellaguarda and Patrick Heuscher, the No. 12 seed from Switzerland, in Sunday’s semifinals.
The other semifinal has No. 7 Wu Penggen-Xu Linyin of China against top-seeded Emanuel Rego-Alison Cerutti of Brazil.
Rogers-Dalhausser lost to the Brazilians in last weekend’s final in Gstaad, Switzerland. Before Gstaad they missed the final four in three straight tournaments as Dalhausser recovered from a sprained ankle.
Rogers-Dalhausser made the finals in the first three events of the season and won the first two. They won a FIVB-record nine tournaments last year.
Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor won their second tournament of the year, beating Brazil’s Larissa Franca and Juliana Silva, 23-21, 21-15.
It marked their 37th career title on the World Tour, a number that trails only Larissa and Juliana, who have 40. The victory also was the first for May-Treanor adn Walsh in four meetings against the Brazilians.
