Maceió, Brazil, February 27, 2016 - For the 63rd-time on the FIVB World Tour there will be a Brazil versus the United States men’s gold medal match as teams from those countries posted a pair of wins each here Saturday to advance to the finals of US$150,000 Maceió Open on the Pajuçara courts in front of the Hotel Enseada.
Second-seeded Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena of the United States reached a FIVB World Tour gold medal match for the seventh-time in their last eight international starts together by out-lasting 11th-seeded Vitor Felipe and Alvaro Filho 2-1 (21-17, 20-22, 15-10) with the capacity crowd favoring the home-standing Brazilians in a 58-minute Saturday evening match.
SUNDAY FINALE
With their first-ever win over Vitor and Filho, who were playing in their first FIVB semi-finals, Dalhausser and Lucena will meet top-seeded Evandro Goncalves and Pedro Solberg of Brazil in the Sunday morning finale where the gold medal team will be awarded the $11,000 first-place prize.
Evandro and Pedro, who will be playing in their third FIVB World Tour gold medal match, advanced to the finale with a 2-0 (21-18, 21-16) win in 38 minutes over 28th-seeded compatriots Saymon Barbosa and Gustavo Carvalhaes. The win avenged a setback to the young Brazilian rivals last September at the Rio Open, which was a “test” event for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
To reach the semi-finals, Dalhausser and Lucena scored a 2-1 (19-21, 21-9, 15-4) win in 45 minutes over Adrian Carambula and Alex Ranghieri of Italy in the quarter-finals before Evandro and Pedro earned a spot in the “final four” with a 2-0 (21-18, 21-15) quarter-final win in 45 minutes over ninth-seeded Lombardo Ontiveros and Juan Virgen of Mexico.
“This will be a classic confrontation between two of the Beach Volleyball powers in the world,” said Pedro, who has faced Dalhausser twice in a FIVB World Tour gold medal match. “There is a reason why they call Phil a beast at the net. He is one of the top blockers in the world with a great service game. Nick is an awesome defender. It should be a great match and we have to play our best to win.”
Since Dalhausser and Lucena did not reunite as partner on the FIVB World Tour until last August in Long Beach, the Americans do not have any history with the Evandro/Pedro tandem. Evandro and Pedro, who have already been named to the Brazilian Beach Volleyball team for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, started playing together at the start of the 2015 FIVB season when Dalhausser was playing with Sean Rosenthal and Nick Lucena was paired with Theo Brunner.
Dalhausser has faced Pedro 22 times on the FIVB World Tour with three different partners and has posted 15 wins against his Brazilian rival. Two of the meetings were in gold medal finals with Dalhausser and Pedro winning once each. Lucena did face Evandro and Pedro with Brunner at the 2015 FIVB World Championships in The Hague where the Brazilians won the bronze medal match. Dalhausser, the Beijing 2008 Olympic and FIVB 2007 world champions with Todd Rogers, missed the 2015 Dutch worlds due to injury.
BRAZIL LEADS 32-30
With the FIVB starting sanctioning international Beach Volleyball events in 1987, the Maceió Open is the 334th men’s event. Brazil and the United States have be paired in the most gold medal matches with the South Americans holding a 32-30 advantage after Alison Cerutti and Bruno Oscar Schmidt defeated Dalhausser and Lucena in the last title match between the two countries at the SWATCH FIVB World Tour Finals in the United States on a south Florida beach.
GOING FOR BRONZE
With Sunday’s championship runner-up being presented $8,000 for second-place, the two young teams will be seeking the $6,000 check for the bronze medal finish. Vitor and Alvaro captured the only FIVB World Tour meeting between the two teams with a 2-0 (21-15, 21-14) win in 38 minutes at the Olsztyn Grand Slam last August in Poland.
NEXT EVENT
Following the Maceió Open, the FIVB World Tour will take a week off before resuming competition March 8-13 on famed Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, the first grand slam event on the 2015-2016 international Beach Volleyball calendar with an $800,000 purse.