Dalhausser and Lucena reach gold medal match

FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida, USA, March 3, 2018 – Phil Dalhausser/Nick Lucena of USA meet Rio Olympic medalists Daniele Lupo/Paolo Nicolai of Italy for the gold medal at this week’s FIVB World Tour event in Fort Lauderdale.

Both teams won a pair of matches Saturday to advance to the sixth men’s FIVB World Tour gold medal match between the two countries.

Lupo and Paolo Nicolai were the first to advance to the Sunday’s gold medal match by posting a 2-0 (24-22, 25-23) win in 52 minutes over ninth-seeded qualifiers Pedro Solberg/George Wanderley of Brazil.

Dalhausser and Lucena completed the matchup with a 2-0 (21-14, 21-12) victory in 37 minutes over 12th-seeded Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Janis Smedins of Latvia.

To advance to Saturday evening’s semi-finals, Dalhausser and Lucena posted a 2-0 (22-20, 21-16) win in 37 minutes over 11th-seeded  Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen of The Netherlands and Lupo and Nicolai eliminated 13th-seeded Adrian Gavira/Pablo Herrera of Spain 2-1 (24-22, 19-21, 17-15) in 54 minutes.