Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 15, 2016 -The Rio 2016 Olympic men’s quarter-final Beach Volleyball match was nothing like the “hype” due to the windy conditions as Brazilians Alison Cerutti and Bruno Oscar Schmidt handled the elements better in eliminating American rivals Phil Dalhausser and United States here Monday afternoon with a three-set win to advance to the semi-finals.
Being played before a packed house at the “Coliseu on Copacabana”, Alison and Bruno scored a 2-1 (21-14, 12-21, 15-9) in 49 minutes over Dalhausser and Lucena for their third win in five international matches with the Americans. With the setback, Dalhausser and Lucena place fifth in the competition while the Brazilians will be playing Wednesday against a team from The Netherlands in the “final four”.
The opening two sets were completely different as Alison and Bruno broke from a 5-5 tie in the first set with a three-point run that propelled the Brazilians to a 10-5 spurt to take control command as the host pair scored three-straight points to end the set.
Dalhausser, the Beijing 2008 Olympic gold medal winner with Todd Rogers, and Lucena jumped to a 5-0 lead in the second set and had leads of 6-1, 8-6, 12-9 and 16-12 at the side switches. After Alison and Bruno made it 14-11, the Americans got on a roll and scored seven of the last eight points to force a third set.
With the match report listng the wind out of the north at 84 kmh (52 miles per hour), Alison and Bruno started on the good side and roared to a 4-1 lead and never looked back as they led 6-4, 10-5 and 12-8 at the side switches before ending it at 15-9.
"Momentum is a huge thing in any sport," said Dalhausser after the match. "They killed all of the momentum in the third by winning the toss and going to the good side. Bruno hit that ace right off the bat. That kind of changed the tide, if you will. There was home court advantage. Alison feeds off of that energy from the crowd. He played great. In my opinion, he’s the best player in the world right now."
With Bruno playing in his first Olympics’, Alison will seeking his second medal after placing second with Emanuel Rego at the London 2012 Summer Games. The Brazilians will meet either Reinder Nummerdor/Christiaan Varenhorst or Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen of The Netherlands. Brouwer and Meeuwsen are the 2013 FIVB world championships with Alison and Bruno winning the crown in 2015 at The Hague.
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