Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser have made the semifinals in a FIVB World Tour event for the ninth time in 12 tournaments this season.
The local pro beach volleyball professionals won two matches on Friday to reach the final four at the Aland Open in Finland. The top-seeded duo will be joined by Brazil’s Emanuel Rego and Alison Cerutti and two other teams that will be determined on Saturday.
Rogers-Dalhausser are looking for their fifth FIVB title of the season, which would match the number won by Rego-Cerutti. The two teams are within 120 points of each other in the race for the World Tour season title with two men’s events left after Aland.
On Friday, Rogers and Dalhausser defeated No. 8 Petr Benes and Premysl Kubala of the Czech Republic (21-17, 21-12), and fifth-seeded Brazilians Marcio Araujo and Benjamin Insfran in three sets (13-21, 21-13, 15-11).
The rest of the U.S. men were eliminated Friday. No. 11 Matt Fuerbringer and Nick Lucena won their first match in the contender’s bracket over No. 21 Martin Laciga and Jonas Weingart of Switzerland (21-19, 21-10), but were eliminated in their next match by No. 3 Grzegorz Fijalek and Mariusz Prudel of Poland (22-24, 20-22). The Americans tied for 13th.
Bowing out at 17th were 23rd-seeded Americans Brad Keenan and Casey Patterson, who were eliminated by No. 9 Hannes Brinkborg and Stefan Gunnarsson of Sweden (19-21, 21-13, 13-15). Also taking a 17th were the Klagenfurt men’s winners, No. 4 Ricardo Santos and Pedro Cunha of Brazil.
The men’s semifinals will take place Saturday, with the medal matches on Sunday.
Story includes information from Universal Sports.
