| http://www.fivb.org/EN/BeachVolleyball/Competitions/WorldTour/2011/Event/viewPressRelease.asp?No=30846&Language=en | ||||
The world’s best beach volleyball tandems were in Poland this week as the double-gender event marked the eighth consecutive visit by the FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour with Stare Jablonki hosting seven previous men’s events and three previous women’s events. This is also the second year it has been a grand slam instead of an open event. Overall, this is the 10th men’s event held in Poland (Myslowice hosted in 2009, 2010), and eighth women’s event held in Poland (Myslowice hosted in 2008 and this year and Warsaw in 2006, 2007). In the gold medal finale, late Saturday afternoon in front of over 6,000 celebratory fans on the Hotel Anders center court, USA’s second-seeded Dalhausser/Rogers overcame the challenge of the home-country fans and Poland’s fourth-seeded Grzegorz Fijalek/Mariusz Prudel to earn a three-set victory in 53 minutes, 21-15, 15-21 and 15-13 in the tiebreaker. With their victory, USA’s Dalhausser/Rogers increased their 2011 FIVB Swatch World Tour record to 51-12 while Poland’s Fijalek/Prudel slipped to 36-15. Able to successfully defend the gold medal they won in Stare Jablonki last year after starting 0-2 in pool play, USA’s Dalhausser/Rogers won six straight to earn their 21st FIVB career gold medal as a team while making the final four for the 36th time in the 47 events they have played together and garnered their 34th FIVB medal as a team. With the win USA’s Dalhausser/Rogers improved their career FIVB record against Poland’s Fijalek/Prudel to 5-0, although this was the first win that took three sets to accomplish. The victory was also the fifth time as a team when that USA’s Dalhausser/Rogers won the gold medal match against a team from the host country. The Hotel Anders resort and spa in the Mazury region of northeast Poland has hosted this tournament since the event began in 2004. Stare Jablonki is a village of 750 permanent residents that swells to over 30,000 for the week of this event and the Mazury region is known throughout Europe for having more than 1,000 lakes. The smallest population area the FIVB Swatch World Tour visits every year, the Hotel Anders event has a history of drawing among the largest of all crowds annually on the tour. The sixth of seven “major” tournaments on the 2011 FIVB Swatch World Tour schedule, the Mazury Orlen Grand Slam saw the winning pairs in each gender share the $43,500 first-place prizes. Silver medalists will split $29,500 while bronze medal winners will divide $23,000 and the fourth place finishing teams will each receive $18,400. A major crowd favorite all week as they won six straight matches before eventually succumbing in the gold medal match, Poland’s Fijalek/Prudel have played 34 FIVB Swatch World Tour events together and in Stare Jablonki they became the first team from their country to finish in the final four and to earn a medal in this event. This was their seventh career final four placement, they’re third medal overall and second silver medal. They now have earned four final four placements in the last six FIVB Swatch World Tour events and the other two were fifth place finishes in this stretch. In the gold medal match, USA’s Dalhausser/Rogers came out strong, erupting for a 7-1 lead which didn’t silence the roaring Polish crowd supporting their home-country team one bit. The match was never tied as Dalhausser scored three times on blocks along with two ace serves and Rogers scored several times on kills and chop shots. Things changed in the second set as Poland’s Fijalek/Prudel fed off the sizzling energy of the vocal sold out crowd, breaking open a 5-5 tie to lead by 18-12 and then closing it with a Prudel kill over Dalhausser. The tiebreaker set was tied three times, the last at 6-6 as Dalhausser’s defense netted three more blocks, several kills and Rogers kept Filalek/Prudel running with successful chop shots. USA built a lead of 11-7 and Poland did close to 12-13, but USA scored two of the final three points on a Rogers cross court kill and Dalhausser ending it with a cross court kill of his own. “We had a very slow start in this tournament, but we turned it around and finished really strong, beating the new world champions and a red-hot Polish team on their home court,” said Dalhausser following the match. “We were comfortable with how things were going, but they made some great plays in the second set and we couldn’t close them out. Todd and I play a lot of three set matches so we don’t panic easily and we actually enjoy when a large, vocal crowd like this is rooting for their home team. We feel the energy, but we don’t let it get to us. It actually helps us to focus even more.” Echoing Dalhausser’s comments, Rogers said, “We really turned this one around and it took both of us to do it. Those first two losses were really bad on our part but the last six wins we played as good as we have since Phil’s ankle injury. The Polish team played very good like Phil said and I think it’s great to see another country besides the ‘regulars’ have some impact on the final four of a FIVB Swatch World Tour event.” In the bronze medal match Brazil’s top-seeded Alison Cerutti/Emanuel Rego overcame a relatively slow start and defeated Germany’s 13th-seeded Jonathan Erdmann/Kay Matysik in two sets, 23-21, 21-15 in 39 minutes. For the relatively new team of Alison/Emanuel, this was just their 21st tournament as a team, their 15th final four with 14 medals won and their fifth bronze medal. For the legendary Emanuel, 38, this was his 155th career FIVB Swatch World Tour event and his 38th career FIVB bronze medal. For his young, but blossoming career, Alison, 25, this was his 25 FIVB Swatch World Tour final four with 23 medals and he has eight FIVB career bronze medals with the one he earned today with Emanuel. Including the bronze medal match, Brazil’s Alison/Emanuel, the 2011 FIVB Swatch World Champions has a 2011 FIVB Swatch World Tour record of 52-6, and Germany’s Erdmann/Matysik duo is 24-23. After being behind much of the first set of the bronze medal match, Alison/Emanuel rallied to tie the score at 20-20 and Erdmann/Matysik missed on three set point attempts and then the Brazilian’s kept the edge, closing it out with the second Emanuel ace in the final points and a cross court kill by Alison. In the second set, Alison/Emanuel jumped out fast, leading 5-1 and 9-3, and after short rallies by the Erdmann/Matysik, eventually putting the set and match away, playing nearly flawless to overpower Erdmann/Matysik and move their FIVB career record against the Germans to 5-2. In Sunday semifinals that once again rocked the full house at the Hotel Anders center court stadium, USA’s Dalhausser/Rogers came out strong, hung tough, then pulled away to defeat Brazil’s Alison/Emanuel, 21-15, 18-21 and 15-12 in 48 minutes and Poland’s Fijalek/Prudel danced to the music of the over the top enthusiasm of their Polish fans to defeat Germany’s Erdmann/Matysik for the second time in this tournament, 22-20, 21-12 in 39 minutes. In the first semifinal, USA’s Dalhausser/Rogers returned to the Hotel Anders center court for the first time losing two pool play matches there on Thursday which seriously challenged them to advance to the single-elimination bracket play in the tournament. In the first set between the top two-seeds in the tournament, Brazil jumped to a 4-1 lead and there were three early ties as Dalhausser/Rogers clawed back into the match with good serving and get work at the Swatch net by Dalhausser, leading 12-9 at the technical time out and then pulling away until Dalhausser ended it with his second ace serve down the middle of the court. In the second set, things got much closer, even though Dalhausser/Rogers started off 3-0, there with 12 ties in the set, the last one at 18-18 when Brazill scored the last three points off a Dalhausser serve into the net, a Rogers cross court kill that went wide and Alison ended with a kill over the top of Rogers. In the tiebreaker third set, USA jumped off to a 4-0 lead on two consecutive blocks by Dalhausser and Emanuel chop that went wide trying to overcompensate for Dalhausser’s presence and an Alison hitting error after a great serve by Rogers. As Dalhausser dominated the net with seven blocks, USA kept a lead of at least two points the rest of the way ending the match with an Emanuel serve that went long and an Alison kill that was wide. In the dynamic rivalry between the two teams, USA’s Dalhausser/Rogers now have an 8-3 series edge over Brazil’s Alison/Emanuel, playing in just their 21st FIVB Swatch World Tour event as a team. Before Sunday’s semifinal in Stare Jablonki, In their three previous meetings this year were in gold medal matches with the American’s winning the season-opener in Brazil, and the Brazilians taking the next two in Prague, Czech Republic and in Gstaad, Switzerland three weeks ago. With the packed house roaring “Polska, Polska” at every hit in the second semifinal, Poland’s home country favorites Fijalek/Prudel made the most of the first ever final four appearance by a Polish team in the Mazury Orlen Grand Slam, defeated Germany’s Erdmann/Matysik in straight sets. Down early in the first set, Fijalek/Prudel came back to take the lead then broke a 20-20 tie by scoring the final two points to win. In the second set, with their home-country crowd on their feet for nearly the entire set, Fijalek/Prudel worked phenomenally at the net and on serves to overpower Erdmann/Maytsik to the delight of the nearly delirious fans at the sold-out Hotel Anders center court stadium. Poland’s Fijalek/Prudel, who have made the final four the fourth time in the last six world tour stops, now have a 3-0 FIVB career record against Germany’s Erdmann/Matysik, who have made their first final four on the world tour as a team, including a two-set pool play win for Poland earlier this week in Stare Jablonki. Last year’s men’s final four finishers in Stare Jablonki were USA’s Phil Dalhausser/Todd Rogers (gold), Germany’s Julius Brink/Jonas Reckermann (Silver), Brazil’s Marcio Araujo/Ricardo Santos (Bronze) and Germany’s David Klemperer/Eric Koreng (fourth place). In this year’s women’s competition, Brazil’s Juliana Felisberta Silva/Larissa Franca won gold for the third straight year, with silver going to USA’s Jennifer Kessy/April Ross, bronze to Brazil’s Maria Antonelli/Talita Antunes and fourth place to going to China’s Chen Xue/Xi Zhang. The 2011 FIVB Swatch World Tour calendar features 15 women's and 14 men's events, including 12 double-gender tournaments, within all five FIVB confederations plus one special 24-team single-gender women’s test event held August 9-14 at London’s Horse Guards Parade, the venue for beach volleyball at the 2012 London Olympic Games. The 2011 FIVB Swatch World Tour is offering $7.64-million in prize money. Twelve of the tournaments are combined men's and women's events, including the World Championships and all six Grand Slam stops. After the $600,000 Mazury Orlen Grand Slam, the 2011 FIVB Swatch World Tour has its last of six 2011 Grand Slam double-gender events Monday through Sunday in Klagenfurt, Austria (A1 Grand Slam presented by Volksbank Klagenfurt 2011). Each grand slam has $600,000 purses and the other major event this year, the 2011 FIVB Swatch World Championships in Rome had a $1 million total purse. The $600,000 Mazury Orlen Grand Slam was the 228th women’s event and 267th men’s event on the FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour (open, grand slam, Olympic and Goodwill). The first men’s FIVB Swatch World Tour event was played February 17-22, 1987 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and the first women’s event was played August 14-16, 1992 at Almeria, Spain. While this is the 25th year that the FIVB has sanctioned international pro beach volley events, it is the 23rd year of the men’s and 20th year of the women’s FIVB Swatch World Tour. Also on-site this week at the Hotel Anders venue was a special production crew from IMG, the company that not only produces the live international telecasts of select matches, but also the weekly FIVB Swatch World Tour highlight show that is syndicated throughout the world. For more information on the 2011 FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour, please visit www.fivb.org or visit the event website at www.worldtour.pl. | ||||
Sunday, July 31, 2011
USA’s Dalhausser/Rogers grab men’s gold at Mazury Orlen Grand Slam
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Sunday, July 24, 2011
USA sweeps men's podium at FIVB Swatch Quebec Open Jeep 201
| http://www.fivb.org/EN/BeachVolleyball/Competitions/WorldTour/2011/Event/viewPressRelease.asp?No=30654&Language=en | ||||
Back in North America for the first time since 2007, the double-gender event marked the eighth time the world tour visited Canada and the first time an event was held in Quebec City. In the all American men’s gold medal match, USA’s top-seeded Phil Dalhausser/Todd Rogers defeated seventh-seeded countrymen Matt Fuerbringer/Nick Lucena, 23-21, 21-19 in 47 minutes. This was the 12th time in the history of the FIVB Swatch World Tour that there has been an All-American gold medal finale. The last time this happened was in Klagenfurt, Austria, on Aug. 1, 2010 when the same two teams met and Dalhausser/Rogers won that match as well in two sets. Both sets were played very close as the scores indicated with Dalhausser/Rogers getting just enough of an edge to win with Dalhausser blocks and serves and Rogers digs, chop shots and an occasional hard kill. The ninth of 14 men’s and 10th of 15 women’s internationally-televised tournaments on the 2011 FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour schedule, the FIVB Swatch Quebec Open Jeep 2011 is running parallel schedules for both genders with the 32-team double elimination main draws which started Thursday ending Sunday. As nearly 5,000 fans filled the sold-out Quebec center court, the winning pairs in each gender share the $30,000 first-place prizes. Silver medal teams will split $21,000, the bronze $15,000 and the fourth place teams will divide $11,200. The venue for the open tournament in Quebec is the provincial I’Externat St-Jean Berchmans and Seminaire des Peres Maristes in the Quebec borough of Sillery. Fuerbringer/Lucena, who were playing in their 18th career FIVB Swatch World Tour event, made their third final four appearance and second gold medal match. They won their second career FIVB silver medal. USA’s Dalhausser/Rogers, who finished a perfect 6-0 in Quebec, were playing their 46th FIVB Swatch World Tour event together and had in their 35th final four finish and played in their 26th career FIVB gold medal match. As a team, Dalhausser/Rogers have now won 20 FIVB gold medals. In winning their third gold medal of the 2011 FIVB Swatch World Tour season, Dalhausser/Rogers also increased their all-time career FIVB record against Fuerbringer/Lucena to 5-0. Dalhauser/Rogers also increased their 2011 FIVB Swatch World Tour won-loss record to 45-10 with their six wins in Quebec. “Phil’s blocking, especially at the end of both sets is really what put us over the top and won the match for us,” commented Rogers following the gold medal finale. “Matt and Nick are a very good team and when they are on, like I said yesterday, they can beat anyone in the world, just not this Sunday. The organization of this event in Quebec may just be the best ever first-time event in FIVB history. Phil and I are honored and humbled to also have been part of the first American sweep of an FIVB podium. A great week and a super gold medal and now it’s back to work in Europe with two more FIVB grand slams in Poland and Austria. But we will enjoying being back on top of the podium for tonight anyway.” In Sunday’s men’s bronze medal match, USA’s fifth-seeded Jake Gibb/Sean Rosenthal pushed through the blazing sun and pro-Brazilian sellout crowd to defeat Brazil’s 29th-seeded Alvaro Filho/Moises Santos, 22-20 and 21-19 in 43 minutes. It was a rematch of Friday’s winner’s bracket third round match that Gibb/Rosenthal also won by near identical scores to Sunday. In their first pairing on Friday, the USA team won, 22-20, 21-15 in 40 minutes. Playing in their 46th world tour event together and finishing in the final four for the eighth time, Gibb/Rosenthal, who finished with a 5-2 record in Quebec, earned their second career FIVB silver medal. Brazil’s Filho/Santos, were playing in their first FIVB Swatch World Tour event together, Filho, just 20, is playing in his first world tour event after winning the silver medal each of the last two years with Vitor Felipe at the FIVB Swatch Junior World Championships for players under 21 years old. With the final four finish by Filho/Santos, Brazil has now advanced at least one team to an FIVB Swatch World Tour final four 248 times. The United States swept the podium Sunday for the first time in the 23-year history of men’s FIVB Swatch World Tour event. The only other time the USA had three teams in the final four was 1991 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The FIVB Swatch World Tour previously had tournaments in Canada in Toronto (three from 1998-2000) and Montreal (four from 2002-2007). A total of 97 teams from 29 countries competed in the FIVB Swatch Québec Open Jeep 2011. The 2011 FIVB Swatch World Tour calendar features 15 women's and 14 men's events, including 12 double-gender tournaments, within all five FIVB confederations plus one special 24-team single-gender women’s test event held August 9-14 at London’s Horse Guards Parade, the venue for beach volleyball at the 2012 London Olympic Games. The 2011 FIVB Swatch World Tour is offering $7.64-million in prize money. Twelve of the tournaments are combined men's and women's events, including the World Championships and all six Grand Slam stops. After the FIVB Swatch Quebec Open Jeep 2011, the 2011 FIVB Swatch World Tour returns to Europe for the final two of six 2011 Grand Slam double-gender events: Monday through Sunday in Stare Jablonki, Poland (Mazury Orlen Grand Slam Stare Jablonki 2011) and Klagenfurt, Austria (A1 Grand Slam presented by Volksbank Klagenfurt 2011). The total prize money for each Grand Slam event is $600,000. The FIVB Swatch Quebec Open Jeep 2011 was the 227th women’s event and 266th men’s event on the FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour (open, grand slam, Olympic and Goodwill). The first men’s FIVB Swatch World Tour event was played February 17-22, 1987 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and the first women’s event was played August 14-16, 1992 at Almeria, Spain. While this is the 25th year that the FIVB has sanctioned international pro beach volley events, it is the 23rd year of the men’s and 20th year of the women’s FIVB Swatch World Tour. Also on-site this week in Quebec was a special production crew from IMG, the company that not only produces the live international telecasts of select matches, but also the weekly FIVB Swatch World Tour highlight show that is syndicated throughout the world. For more information on the 2011 FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour, please visit www.fivb.org or visit the event website at www.quebecopenjeep.com. | ||||
Saturday, July 23, 2011
USA’s Dalhausser/Rogers & Fuerbringer/Lucena win semifinals for all USA men’s gold medal match at FIVB Swatch Quebec Open Jeep 2011
| http://www.fivb.org/EN/BeachVolleyball/Competitions/WorldTour/2011/Event/viewPressRelease.asp?No=30632&Language=en | ||||
Back in North America for the first time since 2007, the double-gender event marks the eighth time the world tour is visiting Canada and the first time competing in Quebec City. Meeting for the Canadian men’s gold medal as the United States has three teams in the final four for only the second time and first since 1991 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on the FIVB Swatch World Tour, will be USA’s top seeded Phil Dalhausser/Todd Rogers and seventh-seeded Matt Fuerbringer/Nick Lucena. It will be the 12th time in the history of the FIVB Swatch World Tour that there has been an All-American gold medal finale. The last time this happened was in Klagenfurt, Austria, on Aug. 1, 2010 when the same two teams met and Dalhausser/Rogers won in two sets. The ninth of 14 men’s and 10th of 15 women’s internationally-televised tournaments on the 2011 FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour schedule, the FIVB Swatch Quebec Open Jeep 2011 is running parallel schedules for both genders with the 32-team double elimination main draws which started Thursday ending Sunday. The bronze medal and gold medal matches will be played consecutively starting at 1 p.m. on the Quebec center court as the winning pairs in each gender share the $30,000 first-place prizes. Silver medal teams will split $21,000, the bronze $15,000 and the fourth place teams will divide $11,200. The venue for the open tournament in Quebec is the provincial I’Externat St-Jean Berchmans and Seminaire des Peres Maristes in the Quebec borough of Sillery. In the all-American first semifinal, USA’s Fuerbringer/Lucena defeated compatriots and fifth-seeded Jake Gibb/Sean Rosenthal in straight sets, 21-17, 21-14 in 37 minutes. In their team competition, Fuerbringer/Lucena are now 2-0 against Gibb/Rosenthal. Fuerbringer/Lucena, playing in their 18th career FIVB Swatch World Tour event, are making their third final four appearance and second gold medal match. Playing this entire season so far, Fuerbringer/Lucena have no finish before this year higher than two fifth place finishes to open the season. Since then, they have struggled with two 25th-place finishes, two ninths and two 17ths. In the last semifinal of the evening played before another Quebec center court full house of nearly 5,000 enthusiastic fans, USA’s top-seeded Phil Dalhausser/Todd Rogers played at a consistently high level to defeat Brazil’s 29th-seeded Alvaro Filho/Moises Santos, 21-15, 21-18 in 39 minutes. Dalhausser/Rogers, 5-0 in Quebec, are playing their 46th FIVB Swatch World Tour event together and are playing in their 35th final four and their 26th career FIVB gold medal match. As a team, Dalhausser/Rogers have won 19 FIVB gold medals. Brazil’s Filho/Santos, playing in their first FIVB Swatch World Tour event together, and Gibb/Rosenthal, who are playing in their 46th world tour event together and are in the final four for the eighth time, will meet in the bronze medal match on the Quebec center court prior to the men’s bronze medal match. Filho, just 20, is playing in his first world tour event after winning the silver medal each of the last two year’s with Vitor Felipe at the FIVB Swatch Junior World Championships for players under 21 years old. After a shaking start in the first set of their semifinal, Dalhausser/Rogers regained control and steadily pulled away. In the second set, the kept the momentum but the energetic Brazilians hung in the battle until the finish. “They certainly didn’t play like they were tired and for a first world tour event as a team and a first world tour event period for Filho, they have done a tremendous job and my hat’s off to them,” said Rogers afterwards. “Other than the start when I got blocked, aced and dug, we felt good and got control and kept it. I wasn’t hitting hard ones very well but my chops were effective and occasionally I landed a hard one to keep them honest. Now we get to play some more old friends in Fuerbringer/Lucena who haven’t played that much together and can be up and down, but when they are up, they can beat anyone in the world, anyone.” USA’s Gibb/Rosenthal started the day with a contender’s bracket quarterfinal win over Sweden’s 21st-seeded Hannes Brinkborg/Stefan Gunnarsson, 21-19, 21-18 in 43 minutes to advance to the semifinals against their compatriots, Fuerbringer/Lucena. Filho/Santos played three times on Saturday, including the semifinal loss to Dalhausser/Rogers. In their earlier matches Saturday, Filho/Santos defeated Brazil’s eighth-seeded Thiago Santos Barbosa/Harley Marques, 21-14, 18-21 and 15-12 in 52 minutes and then in another three-setter in the contender’s bracket quarterfinals, the scrappy Brazilians defeated Latvia’s sixth-seeded Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Ruslands Sorokins, 24-23, 19-21 and 15-13 in 59 minutes. As the FIVB Swatch World Tour has returned to Canada, Canadians started the main draw with four men’s and six women’s teams in the main draw. The last team to be eliminated was in the women’s competition, where Canada’s 10th-seeded Heather Bansley/Elizabeth Maloney finished with a fifth place finish after losing their final match Saturday to Brazil’s Salgado sisters, 21-17, 21-15 in 38 minutes. The highest-finishing men’s team was 28th-seeded Maverick Hatch/Sam Schachter, who ended their successful tournament on Friday with a ninth-place finish. Hatch/Schachter were playing in their first FIVB Swatch World Tour event and Schachter won the 2010 FIVB Swatch Junior World Championship with Garrett May. The FIVB Swatch World Tour previously had tournaments in Canada in Toronto (three from 1998-2000) and Montreal (four from 2002-2007). A total of 97 teams from 29 countries have have been competing in the FIVB Swatch Québec Open Jeep 2011. The 2011 FIVB Swatch World Tour calendar features 15 women's and 14 men's events, including 12 double-gender tournaments, within all five FIVB confederations plus one special 24-team single-gender women’s test event held August 9-14 at London’s Horse Guards Parade, the venue for beach volleyball at the 2012 London Olympic Games. The 2011 FIVB Swatch World Tour is offering $7.64-million in prize money. Twelve of the tournaments are combined men's and women's events, including the World Championships and all six Grand Slam stops. After the FIVB Swatch Quebec Open Jeep 2011, the 2011 FIVB Swatch World Tour returns to Europe for the final two of six 2011 Grand Slam double-gender events: July 25-31 in Stare Jablonki, Poland (Mazury Orlen Grand Slam Stare Jablonki 2011) and Klagenfurt, Austria (A1 Grand Slam presented by Volksbank Klagenfurt 2011). The total prize money for each Grand Slam event is $600,000. The FIVB Swatch Quebec Open Jeep 2011 is the 227th women’s event and 266th men’s event on the FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour (open, grand slam, Olympic and Goodwill). The first men’s FIVB Swatch World Tour event was played February 17-22, 1987 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and the first women’s event was played August 14-16, 1992 at Almeria, Spain. While this is the 25th year that the FIVB has sanctioned international pro beach volley events, it is the 23rd year of the men’s and 20th year of the women’s FIVB Swatch World Tour. Also on-site this week in Quebec is a special production crew from IMG, the company that not only produces the live international telecasts of select matches, but also the weekly FIVB Swatch World Tour highlight show that is syndicated throughout the world. For more information on the 2011 FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour, please visit www.fivb.org or visit the event website at www.quebecopenjeep.com. | ||||
Friday, July 22, 2011
USA’s Dalhausser/Rogers and Fuerbringer/Lucena earn Men’s semifinal spots at FIVB Swatch Quebec Open Jeep 2011
USA's Todd Rogers, left, bump sets the Mikasa for teammate Phil Dalhausser as the top-seeded Americans won two more matches Friday to advance to Saturday's final four at the FIVB Swatch Quebec Open Jeep 2011.
Quebec City, Canada, July 22, 2011—Enjoying the benefits of playing close to home for the first time this season, USA’s beach volleyball tandems Phil Dalhausser/Todd Rogers and Matt Fuerbringer/Nick Lucena remained undefeated Friday to become the first men’s teams to advance to Saturday’s semifinals as the 2011 FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour continues at the double-elimination $380,000 FIVB Swatch Quebec Open Jeep 2011, presented by Videotron.
Back in North America for the first time since 2007, the double-gender event marks the eighth time the world tour is visiting Canada and the first time competing in Quebec City.
The ninth of 14 men’s and 10th of 15 women’s internationally-televised tournaments on the 2011 FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour schedule, the FIVB Swatch Quebec Open Jeep 2011 will run parallel schedules for both genders. Action began with country quota playoff matches on Tuesday, single elimination qualification tournaments on Wednesday to determine the final eight spots in the 32-team double elimination main draws which started Thursday and runs through Sunday.
The semifinals will conclude play for each gender on Saturday night and medal matches for each gender will be played Sunday afternoon as the winning pairs in each gender share the $30,000 first-place prizes. Silver medal teams will split $21,000, the bronze $15,000 and the fourth-place finishers dividing $11,200.
The venue for the open tournament in Quebec, which was blanketed with rain showers for over three hours midday on Thursday, is the provincial I’Externat St-Jean Berchmans and Seminaire des Peres Maristes in the Quebec borough of Sillery. Admission is free to Tuesday’s country quota playoff matches as well as Wednesday’s qualification tournaments and ticket information for Thursday through Sunday is available at the event website, www.quebecopenjeep.com or by calling 418.656.3668.
Ticket information for Thursday through Sunday is available at the event website, www.quebecopenjeep.com or by calling 418.656.3668.
Both with 4-0 records in Quebec, USA’s top-seeded Dalhausser/Rogers have earned their 35th final four appearance in 46 career FIVB Swatch World Tour tournaments together while USA’s seventh-seeded Fuerbringer/Lucena, who are playing in their 18th career world tour event, have advanced to the final four for the third time.
Saturday’s matches will include the remaining four matches from the contender’s bracket starting at 1 p.m. to determine the final two teams who will meet the two American teams in Saturday evening’s nationally-televised semifinals, which will run consecutively starting at 6 p.m. on the Quebec center court, where crowds all week have been large and enthusiastic.
Marching to the final four, USA’s Dalhausser/Rogers defeated teams from Brazil and the United States on Friday. Going three sets to secure both of their victories Friday, the 2008 Olympic champions started their day, by defeating Brazil’s eighth-seeded Thiago Santos Barbosa/Harley Marques, 21-15, 19-21 and 15-11 in 58 minutes and in their all-American quarterfinal held under the lights in front of an overflow crowd of more than 4,000 on the Quebec center court, Dalhausser/Rogers beat long-time opponent fifth-seeded Jake Gibb/Sean Rosenthal, 21-15, 15-21 and 15-12 in their 60-minute quarterfinal win. Dalhausser/Rogers now have a 43-10 record on the 2011 FIVB Swatch World Tour and increased their FIVB career record against their American compatriots to 12-5.
With the scored tied four times early in the tiebreaker set and the score at 6-5, Dalhausser made an amazing dig to Rogers who set him up for a kill that gave Dalhausser/Rogers the lead they never relinquished.
USA’s Fuerbringer/Lucena advanced to the final four on Friday by defeating teams from Germany and Latvia. To start their day, they upset Germany’s second-seeded Jonahan Erdmann/Kay Matysik in three sets, 17-21, 21-17 and 17-15 in 62 minutes, the longest match of the day. In their quarterfinal nightcap, the Americans top Latvia’s sixth-seeded Aleksandrs Samoilous/Ruslans Sorokins, 21-19, 21-15 in 37 minutes. Fuerbringer/Lucena have now advanced to their third final four as they are playing in their 18th FIVB Swatch World Tour event together.
“We have played them nearly 60 times counting in the old U.S. domestic series so we definitely don’t fool each other and often it comes down to what it did tonight, who made fewer mistakes and that’s how we were able to pull it out in the third set,” said Rogers following his team’s quarterfinal victory. “We just know each other so well and we didn’t have hardly any mistakes in the first set and then in the second I had four of five hitting errors and that was that. In the tiebreaker, it was close again then we came up with a couple of big plays to give us the two-point lead and we held it from there. The plan is always to win in two sets, but while that didn’t work out today, we will came out on top in both of them and look forward to another challenge in Saturday’s semifinal.”
Besides Latvia’s Samoilous/Sorokins and USA’s Gibb/Rosenthal, the other four teams still alive in the tournament include two teams from Brazil and one each from Georgia and Sweden. Still playing for Brazil are eighth-seeded Thiago Santos Barbosa/Harley Marques and surprising 29th-seeded Alvaro Filho/Moises Santos along with Georgia’s 14th-seeded Renato Gomes/Jorge Terceiro and Sweden’s 21st-seeded Hannes Brinkborg/Stefan Gunnarsson.
As the FIVB Swatch World Tour has returned to Canada, Canadians started the main draw with four men’s and six women’s teams in the main draw. One women’s team, 10th-seeded Heather Bansley/Elizabeth Maloney is the only Canadian team still alive in the tournament. The highest-finishing men’s team was 28th-seeded Maverick Hatch/Sam Schachter, who ended with a ninth-place finish. Hatch/Schachter were playing in their first FIVB Swatch World Tour event and Schachter won the 2010 FIVB Swatch Junior World Championship with Garrett May.
The FIVB Swatch World Tour previously had tournaments in Canada in Toronto (three from 1998-2000) and Montreal (four from 2002-2007). A total of 97 teams from 29 countries have entered the FIVB Swatch Québec Open Jeep 2011.
The 2011 FIVB Swatch World Tour calendar features 15 women's and 14 men's events, including 12 double-gender tournaments, within all five FIVB confederations plus one special 24-team single-gender women’s test event held August 9-14 at London’s Horse Guards Parade, the venue for beach volleyball at the 2012 London Olympic Games. The 2011 FIVB Swatch World Tour is offering $7.64-million in prize money. Twelve of the tournaments are combined men's and women's events, including the World Championships and all six Grand Slam stops.
After the FIVB Swatch Quebec Open Jeep 2011, the 2011 FIVB Swatch World Tour returns to Europe for the final two of six 2011 Grand Slam double-gender events: July 25-31 in Stare Jablonki, Poland (Mazury Orlen Grand Slam Stare Jablonki 2011) and Klagenfurt, Austria (A1 Grand Slam presented by Volksbank Klagenfurt 2011). The total prize money for each Grand Slam event is $600,000.
The FIVB Swatch Quebec Open Jeep 2011 will be the 227th women’s event and 266th men’s event on the FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour (open, grand slam, Olympic and Goodwill). The first men’s FIVB Swatch World Tour event was played February 17-22, 1987 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and the first women’s event was played August 14-16, 1992 at Almeria, Spain. While this is the 25th year that the FIVB has sanctioned international pro beach volley events, it is the 23rd year of the men’s and 20th year of the women’s FIVB Swatch World Tour.
Also on-site this week in Quebec will be a special production crew from IMG, the company that not only produces the live international telecasts of select matches, but also the weekly FIVB Swatch World Tour highlight show that is syndicated throughout the world.
For more information on the 2011 FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour, please visit www.fivb.org or visit the event website at www.quebecopenjeep.com.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Dalhausser and Rogers Win Battle for Bronze in Moscow
http://usavolleyball.org/news/2011/07/17/dalhausser-rogers-win-battle-for-bronze-in-moscow/43577
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (July 17, 2011) – The U.S. men’s beach volleyball team of Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers came back from a semifinal upset and won a battle for the bronze medal on Sunday at the 2011 FIVB Swatch Moscow Grand Slam in Russia.
Dalhausser (Ormond Beach, Fla.) and Rogers (Santa Barbara, Calif.), ranked fourth, defeated China’s seventh-ranked Penggen Wu and Linyin Xu in the longest match of the men’s tournament, 25-27, 24-22, 17-15 in 1 hour, 7 minutes.
In the semifinals, the U.S. team was upset by Switzerland’s 12th-ranked Patrick Heuscher and Jefferson Bellaguarda, 21-16, 14-21, 15-12 in 53 minutes.
“I should have done a better job in blocking higher," Dalhausser told the FIVB. “But they are a good team. The problem is that there are so many strong teams on the Tour now. We have not been playing that well after I hurt my ankle in Beijing. Physically it is ok, but mentally it might still play a role.”
It was the third time the two teams had met this season, but the first victory for Heuscher and Bellaguarda, who are a new team this year.
In the gold medal match, Heuscher and Bellaguarda fell to top-seeded Alison Cerutti and Emanuel Rego of Brazil, 21-16, 18-21, 17-15 in 55 minutes.
Dalhausser and Rogers will share $23,000 for third place.
Next week the FIVB Swatch Beach Volleyball World Tour travels to Canada for the double gender $380,000 Quebec Open. The following week the circuit returns to Europe for the final two of six grand slams on the 2011 calendar: Stare Jablonski, Poland (July 25-31) and Klagenfurt, Austria (Aug. 1-7).
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (July 17, 2011) – The U.S. men’s beach volleyball team of Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers came back from a semifinal upset and won a battle for the bronze medal on Sunday at the 2011 FIVB Swatch Moscow Grand Slam in Russia.
Dalhausser (Ormond Beach, Fla.) and Rogers (Santa Barbara, Calif.), ranked fourth, defeated China’s seventh-ranked Penggen Wu and Linyin Xu in the longest match of the men’s tournament, 25-27, 24-22, 17-15 in 1 hour, 7 minutes.
In the semifinals, the U.S. team was upset by Switzerland’s 12th-ranked Patrick Heuscher and Jefferson Bellaguarda, 21-16, 14-21, 15-12 in 53 minutes.
“I should have done a better job in blocking higher," Dalhausser told the FIVB. “But they are a good team. The problem is that there are so many strong teams on the Tour now. We have not been playing that well after I hurt my ankle in Beijing. Physically it is ok, but mentally it might still play a role.”
It was the third time the two teams had met this season, but the first victory for Heuscher and Bellaguarda, who are a new team this year.
In the gold medal match, Heuscher and Bellaguarda fell to top-seeded Alison Cerutti and Emanuel Rego of Brazil, 21-16, 18-21, 17-15 in 55 minutes.
Dalhausser and Rogers will share $23,000 for third place.
Next week the FIVB Swatch Beach Volleyball World Tour travels to Canada for the double gender $380,000 Quebec Open. The following week the circuit returns to Europe for the final two of six grand slams on the 2011 calendar: Stare Jablonski, Poland (July 25-31) and Klagenfurt, Austria (Aug. 1-7).
Friday, July 15, 2011
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