Aug. 18, 2008

Story courtesy of USA Volleyball.

BEIJING, China - The U.S. beach volleyball team of Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser made it through a tense second set to advance to the semifinals of the Olympic tournament with a 21-13, 25-23 defeat of Germany's eighth-seeded David Klemperer and Eric Koreng at the Chaoyang Park venue Monday.

In Wednesday's semifinal (time TBD), No. 2 Rogers and Dalhausser will face Georgia's Renato "Geor" Gomes and Jorge "Gia" Terceiro, ranked 15th, who were surprise 21-19, 21-19 winners over Netherland's fifth-seeded Reinder Nummerdor and Richard Schuil in Monday's second quarterfinal.

Dalhausser and Rogers faced Geor and Gia in March at the SWATCH FIVB World Tour event in Adelaide, Australia. The United States won the contest, 21-15, 21-15. Since 2006, Dalhausser and Rogers are 3-0 against Geor and Gia.

On Monday, Rogers finished with 13 kills and three digs. Dalhausser scored on 11 kills, six blocks and one ace.

"It was a fantastic game," Rogers said. "Phil was awfully good. I did not pass well, so the Germans scored a lot of points based on me not passing well."

After a relatively easy first set that saw Dalhausser and Rogers take a 10-4 lead and eventually roll to a 21-13 victory, it seemed like victory would be a foregone conclusion.

"We weren't happy with the first set," Klemperer said. "We took on a strategy of making high-risk serves as this worked against the Chinese. But it obviously didn't work today."

Taking a safer approach, Klemperer and Koreng jumped to an 8-5 lead in the second set. Dalhausser made it 8-6 with a kill and Klemperer hit the ball out of bounds to make it 8-7.

On the next play, Dalhausser went up to block Germany's overpass and the referee called it a good play to tie the score at 8-8. Germany vehemently challenged the call, saying Dalhausser was over the net. They were eventually given a yellow card and then a red card for the time delay, giving the Americans a 9-8 lead.

The score stayed close for the rest of the set. The United States reached match point at 21-20, but a Koreng kill tied it up. A Rogers kill gave the U.S. its second set point, but Koreng tied it up against with a kill. The third U.S. set point came with another Rogers kill at 23-22, but Germany fought it off again with another Koreng kill.

Rogers gave Team USA its fourth set point with another kill and a Dalhausser block won the match for the United States.

Koreng finished with 17 kills and two blocks for Germany.

A pair of Brazilian teams will meet in Wednesday's second semifinal, with the medal matches scheduled for Friday.

-- UCSBGauchos.com --